My New Toy

[Kraellin]

i'm going to reprint here an article i wrote on the filter forge website. just easier, i think:

well, i bought myself a new toy for x-mas. it's a usb kvm switch with file transfer. lol. that's a bit of a mouthful. a kvm switch is one for running two computers from one set of controls, k=keyboard, v=video, and m=mouse. in other words, you can use one keyboard, one monitor and one mouse to control two computers. this item is also a usb crossover cable, of sorts, which means i can transfer files back and forth between my two main computers and not have to use microsoft screwball networking (i can never get that to work right for very long) and you dont need a crossover cable and you dont need a router or anything else. it also has an extra usb port built into it so you can connect a printer or external harddrive or any other usb device and access it through both computers! now, that's just slick!

here's the link where i had it bought: http://www.iogear.com/product/GCS661U/ . these guys at iogear are pretty innovative. take a look around there for more slick stuff

i was a little concerned when i first opened the package that there was no software inside. i knew it needed software from a description i had read. but, no cd or dvd. odd. then i looked at the 'what's in this box' list of things and there was no software supposed to be there. ok, that's a bit odd, but let's read the manual and find out what's going on here. as i read and got to the installation procedure i found that the software is built into the device! ok, that's handy as hell. no cd to lose! lol. it also gave very simple instructions and following them was a breeze and in no time i had the thing hooked up and running.

as i finished the install, lo and behold, the desktop from my 'remote' computer suddenly showed up on my main or 'console' computer! wow. remote desktop on a mini-usb network! very, very slick! and, sure enough, i could operate everything on the remote computer from the console! i was just grinning the whole time. i love simple and i love when it works. so, i played around with that a bit and finally closed it down.

the next day i decided to try out the extra usb port on this thing. i already had my printer hooked up to my xp machine, but not my vista. the xp machine is the 'remote' computer on this. so, i installed my printer software on the vista machine and when it asked me to plug in the usb printer i did so, but i did so in the kvm switch usb port. vista and the software saw it just fine! i proceeded to do some printing and all worked just fine.

folks, if you've ever wanted to transfer files from one computer to another without having to hassle with setting up a microsoft network or without having to burn cd's or dvd's, then this may the product for you. look around on the iogear website. they have some other configurations of kvm's more elaborate than this one. i could easily see wiring my house with usb cable with plugs in every room and just connecting all computers in the house to one major usb kvm hub. now, that would be slick!

the one i bought is the one with the link to it. it was $50 u.s. for the hassles this has already saved me, i consider this money well spent!

check out the rest of iogear's website. they have some other interesting toys

and merry christmas

the only thing this didnt do that i was hoping it would do is, when i connected my printer to the usb device i could only print from the local/console machine, but not via the device to the remote and back to the printer. still, a pretty slick device

[pavel123]

Great tip, many thanks for posting.
I am in a similar position with you at the moment, I have XP computer and Win 7 computer sitting next to each other, some of my software working only under XP. This is really convenient way of connecting both (altough network is not such a difficult thing to set up). Also, less pain with configuring firewall, the second machine doesn't need firewall not being on the network.

Did you order this straight from iogear?

[Kraellin]

hi pavel,

i had my computer store order it directly from iogear. they didnt even mark it up (they've made enough from me as it is ). it took just a couple of days for it to arrive.

[TommyO]

Craig,
Thanks for bringing that one to our attention. I decided to try it... only 36.99 on Amazon with free shipping. It may be just what I was looking for to control my contracting laptop from my larger desktop setup. If so, it's much easier than what I was envisioning. Will let you know in a few days

[TommyO]

Craig,
Boy, that's the ticket. Much better than the old traditional KVM switches. It worked exactly as stated in their literature & ad's. Plugged into my laptop; saw it as a USB drive; run one setup file. Plug the other end into the desktop; saw it as a USB drive; run one executable.... you're in. Very fast, very easy to control the laptop. Just what I needed.

The resolution within the remote desktop window was fine as is. However, I prefer it completely fill my desktop screen. So, I did have to choose a higher resolution on the laptop (doing so through the remote window worked fine) in order for it to fill my desktop screen like I wanted. That is something I have to change each time I run it. But, not a big deal at all. In fact, I could probably write a short script to do it as I launch the remote executable.

Perfect ! Thanks again for pointing it out.

[Kraellin]

ah, good, tommy! glad it's working. i like mine, too