Re: AB Box

[Danny Sauer <sauer@cloudmaster.com>]

On Sat, Jul 21, 2001 at 06:36:22PM -0500, Kara Pritchard wrote:
[...]
> Sorry I don't have a more technical explanation. I just know (and
> confirmed with Steven) that the hard switch ones are too expensive, and
> are known to burn up monitors and keyboards.

I thought that manual switches were cheaper...

Anyway, get an electronic switch if you can find *any* way to
afford one.  Not only is it a shade harder on your equipment
to be yanking and replugging contacts over and over (which is
what a manual switch does), but:

electronic switches can handle much higher display resolutions
	(make sure to look for max resolution on KVM cables, too,
	 as they're often the limiter) and refresh rates.  You need
	 bandwidth to shove a lot of pixels across a wire at a high
	 refresh rate...
electronic switches can emulate a mouse and keyboard on machines
	with non-USB versions.  That way you don't have to switch
	over to the machine when rebooting it so it will find those
	peripherals.
electronic switches look cooler
electronic switches can usually do a timed cycle through the
	attached computers, which is cool for a few log-displaying
	machines (not relevent to you, but still neat)

I've been using IOGear miniview electronic switches on several
of our desktops where the user has a Mac and a PC.  One USB keybd
and mouse later, they've got one less monitor to deal with, and a
lot more desk space.  They work well, and can be had online for
around $60/2 port, $80/4 port (I've got a 4-port version on my
"serverrack"/desk).

--Danny
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