Cheap keyboard and mouse switch...

[engelhart]

Hello all

I currently have a Dell PC and my 17" powerbook set up at work. Ideally I wouldn't have the PC but my PhD requires some specialist software that will not work on the Mac, plus I spend a lot of time with MS Access.

I want to hook the system up so I can share a USB keyboard and mouse between the two. I am planning on putting the powerbook on an icurve or similar and having it set up next to my LCD. It is a real pain at the moment having to switch the computers around, move keyboards etc.

I have looked at getting a switch for this but I can only find KVM switches, which don't generally seem to be cheap in USB form. Ideally, I only want a switch for the keyboard and mouse but don't know if this exists. Any ideas/links would be appreciated.

Simon

 

[maverick808]

Might be better to consider a wireless solution. Synergy is the best...

http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

Here's the Mac version...

http://software.landryhetu.com/synergy/

 

[ChrisA]

Try VNC

Hello all

I want to hook the system up so I can share a USB keyboard and mouse between the two. I am planning on putting the powerbook on an icurve or similar and having it set up next to my LCD. It is a real pain at the moment having to switch the computers around, move keyboards etc.

Why not run VNC on the PC. Then you can power down the PC's monitor and put the PC'skeybard and mouse in some out of the way place. Access the PC via VNC running on the Mac. VNC is free and runs on all platforms that I know of. It is almost as good as X11 at decoupling screens/keyboard from computers


A switch is an "either/or" kkind of thing but with a system like VNC (or X11) you can have the displays from multipler computers sent to your desktop and even cut and past between them.

 

[engelhart]

VNC is an excellent idea, why didn't I think of that.

Thanks for the help.

Simon