KVM Query

[Bahumat]

Heya,

I am not sure if a KVM switch is what i'm after, so hope you all can help

I have a Laptop and Desktop. I currently use Input Director (Better version of Synergy) to control both machines. For instance, when I press F9 it gives me control of the laptop, and when I press F10 it goes back to the Desktop (Alternatively I can flick the mouse onto the side of the screen and it jumps across).

The downside is I can only control one machine at any one time. There is a macro feature where I can bind (key 1,2,3) on my keyboard to affect both machines, however setting up a macro for every key on the keyboard is somewhat annoying. Other issue is if I want to write an email on just one machine, I have to stop the service.

Does a KVM switch allow me to control both machines at the same time and mirror everything I do on the keyboard? Or does it only let me switch from one machine to another much like Synergy/Input Director?



A perfect example of what I am trying to do is like those guys in WoW who play about 5 accounts at once.

 

[MYstIC G]

Afaik KVM does what you've already got.

 

[Bahumat]

ahh ok. I might have to google the wow multi boxers and find out how they control 5 accounts at once. They have it so when you press key 1, it does that on all accounts. Some of them run 12+ accounts meaning multiple machines so there must be some software that mirrors the key presses onto all clients.

 

[caLLous]

Yeah a KVM acts as a physical switch between the two, it either controls one or the other afaik.

What does Input Director do that Synergy (or Synergy+, anyway) doesn't? Just interested, I've never used it. I saw a guy that obviously works on or for Input Director pimping it on the Synergy forums and that actually put me off it.

I don't see a scenario where exactly replicating keyboard (and especially mouse) inputs would be a good and productive thing, especially on 2 systems with different screen resolutions. Am I missing something here? Even if you're playing 5 WoW accounts at once (shudder) do you not need to be doing different things on each screen with them?

edit - what about Keyclone?

edit2 - or multibox...

 

[Bahumat]

Yeah a KVM acts as a physical switch between the two, it either controls one or the other afaik.

What does Input Director do that Synergy (or Synergy+, anyway) doesn't? Just interested, I've never used it. I saw a guy that obviously works on or for Input Director pimping it on the Synergy forums and that actually put me off it.

I don't see a scenario where exactly replicating keyboard (and especially mouse) inputs would be a good and productive thing, especially on 2 systems with different screen resolutions. Am I missing something here? Even if you're playing 5 WoW accounts at once (shudder) do you not need to be doing different things on each screen with them?

edit - what about Keyclone?

edit2 - or multibox...

This is why I chose Input Director over Synergy;
1) Daoc - When controlling the other machine, if you mouse pan it went mental spinning the camera all over the place. There was no fix for this.
2) Copy and Paste - You can copy text e.g. a url on the main pc, switch to the other machine and paste the url.
3) Better macro support.

Keyclone came up but it does not seem to do much more than Input Director, although I only had a brief look. Will look some more later on.

Re-Wow: They play 5 of the same class so the quickbars are identical meaning they suffer no problems.

 

[caLLous]

1) I don't play daoc but when I'm doing something full screen like a game or whatever I lock the cursor to the screen so it can't mess up.
2) Synergy has done this forever? You can't copy/paste files but text strings and images work fine. There isn't even any switching you just copy something on one computer, move the mouse to the other screen and paste, it's like a totally seamless multi-monitor setup.
3) I don't know anything about macros in this context.

multibox did what you wanted I think, replicating kb/mouse over several computers.

 

[Bahumat]

1) I don't play daoc but when I'm doing something full screen like a game or whatever I lock the cursor to the screen so it can't mess up.
2) Synergy has done this forever? You can't copy/paste files but text strings and images work fine. There isn't even any switching you just copy something on one computer, move the mouse to the other screen and paste, it's like a totally seamless multi-monitor setup.
3) I don't know anything about macros in this context.

multibox did what you wanted I think, replicating kb/mouse over several computers.

1) In daoc you can pan the camera up/down/left/right with Right Mouse. When you are on the slave machine it spins the camera all over the place so you don't have much flexibility.

2) Yep exactly the same.

 

[caLLous]

Input Director - Software KVM to Control Multiple Computers