Help and advice on KVM switches

[Workaholic]

Basically as I'm the first point of contact for all of my relatives when their computers breaks down, I've decided that I'm to buy myself a cheapish KVM (that will be on all the time!) so that I can do diagnosis works on their faulty computer and still do my own stuff on mine using my own setup (also saves me having to move around to their house - they can bring their faulty equipment/tower to me!)

However a problem that I've been having is that I've found a few suitable KVMs under £20ish with adequate cabling and I can't seem to find much information on them. For example I was interested in the Newlink branded ones (but those switch using a Ctrl key - so that means I can't switch out of battlefield without quitting the game first) and others like Belkin ones have full specification pages but no mention of the one thing I need to know - the maximum supported refresh rate. The one that I've been looking at is this one (switching using the hardly used key Scroll Lock!):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-Omniv...&s=electronics
and I'd thought I'll email Belkin for an answer to what refresh rate it supports at say 1280*1024,32bit colour, but 2 weeks later I still don't have an answer.

Similarly google wasn't much help and searching through 2 pages of past posts (in the last year) again didn't help much.

Therefore I'm hoping that one of you lot will have one of these and can help me in my query or at least recommend to me a good unit.

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P.S. if anyone from SCAN is reading this, could you answer a separate question - this KVM switch is in stock but with no price, any ideas why?
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...roductID=65838

[dave87]

That is similar to the one I have, and it supports all of the resolutions & refresh rates my 17" LG TFT supports (up to 72hz, which is high for a tft)

EDIT - the one that Scan stock is identical to the one I've got and the one on Amazon I used at work, fine with the cheapy tfts they had there

[nichomach]

I can't speak for the PS/2 version, but I've tried two of the USB versions of the Belkin built-in cabling one at work and they were APPALLING. They didn't properly emulate the keyboard at boot, and if a machine was restarted, when it came back up the switch wouldn't stay on the machine, even using the hardware button on the switch itself. Personally, after much messing about, I intend to avoid Belkin in future, and use Daxten or Avocent (which seem pretty reliable).

[Workaholic]

I can't speak for the PS/2 version, but I've tried two of the USB versions of the Belkin built-in cabling one at work and they were APPALLING. They didn't properly emulate the keyboard at boot, and if a machine was restarted, when it came back up the switch wouldn't stay on the machine, even using the hardware button on the switch itself. Personally, after much messing about, I intend to avoid Belkin in future, and use Daxten or Avocent (which seem pretty reliable).

In that case I'll stay away from Belkin and Newlink products and thanks for the sugguestions so far but the last two manufacturer's products are a little out of the price region that I wanted to pay.

Any other sugguestions, anyone?

[DavidM]

P.S. if anyone from SCAN is reading this, could you answer a separate question - this KVM switch is in stock but with no price, any ideas why?
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...roductID=65838

[/quote]

Either: A) - the stock that's in is RMA stock and therefore not sellable... or B) it's only just come back into stock after a long abcense... have to check when we're at work

[Workaholic]

Either: A) - the stock that's in is RMA stock and therefore not sellable... or B) it's only just come back into stock after a long abcense... have to check when we're at work

Thanks for the answer, main reason I asked was because it was recommended in one of the past threads (within the past year) but searching using KVM on the SCAN site does not show it...

Oh well, I'll have to find an excuse to ring you guys about it at work tommorow.

[DavidM]

Ah - if it's not on the site, then it's no longer available.

Give us a ring and we'll see about alternatives for you

[dave87]

The PS2 one is fine, keyboard works at boot, mouse is as responsive as if it was connected directly. The USB ones I used at work were OK, but as someone said, Keyboard emulation was a little shoddy in some cases - but never caused me a major problem?