Question 1

How long are the cables?

Accepted Answer

The cables are 6 feet long connector to connector. You will want to allow (subtract) 6-12" per end for strain relief/angling the cable to the device, so for practical purposes, a safer guide would be 4-5 feet maximum.  For what it's worth I am very pleased with the switch and hardware.

Question 2

Can you mount  this unit in a rack?

Accepted Answer

It has no rackmount materials. It is pretty small, and with a little improvisation it could be tied up to a  rack post or shelf. I use it in a desktop environment with a mix of PC and Mac  hardware.

Question 3

I have three laptops on a tiny kitchen table, and never knew there was such a thing as this.  Are there any gotchas I should know about?  I'm using laptops, for example; is that a problem?  Two of them belong to clients so I cannot install any software on them; do I need to?  Are all the cables included, or must I buy more?

Accepted Answer

We use this for an office setup where there are 2 laptops and a desktop all hooked up to the box. We have a keyboard and mouse that control whichever computer is "active," and that computer also streams to at least one monitor that is connected through the box. So our programmer can jump back and forth between mac/windows/linux using one keyboard/mouse/monitor set. We had to buy a few cords, but some were included. If I remember correctly, they were mostly adapter cords so that we could connect our monitor's DVI type or HDMI to the box or to one of the computers - since everything required a slightly different connector we needed a few adapters or cords. I would just check your monitors/computers against the image for this product to see if the cords will work for you. I don't believe there was any software to install, but our programmer set it up, so I can't say for sure.

Question 4

Will this switch work with one of the PCs with Windows 10 Pro? The other 2 are Win 7 Pro and Vista Home Basic.

Accepted Answer

I'm not running Win 10 on any PCs now, but I've used the switch to go between Win 7 Pro, Linux, and Mac OS with few problems. I don't use keyboard shortcuts, just the button on the box. It sometimes requires a couple of presses to be sure the mouse, KB, and sound have all switched, but I don't think it depends on the OS, probably more on the hardware.

Question 5

I need to support a mix of VGA and DVI systems. Does this include any VGA cables? If not, what kind of cable would I need?

Accepted Answer

This is a DVI switch and does not come with VGA cables.  The pictures of the cables do a very good job of showing what comes with this product.

Having to support a mix of VGA and DVI can be a problem.  You can convert DVI to VGA with a simple $5 adapter.  Just search Newegg for "DVI to VGA".  But those adapters don't work the other way around.  In other words you can't go from VGA to DVI with a cheap adapter  To convert from VGA to DVI you'll need a more expensive converter like an ATEN VC160A VGA to DVI Converter (also available here at Newegg).

If your monitor is VGA then the solution is simple.  Buy a VGA KVM switch and use cheap adapters for the devices that support only DVI.  But if your monitor is DVI only then I think the cheapest route would be to still use a VGA switch but now you'll be using a more expensive converter between the switch and the monitor and adapters from the DVI computers to the switch.  But with multiple format conversions happening with some of the video sources, it may be a challenge to get to work right.

Good Luck

Question 6

Does this KVM support cordless keyboard and mouse?

Accepted Answer

I use a logitech keyboard and mouse that are wireless, so yes it works for me.  I plug the mouse blue tooth plug in the front of the keyboard.

Question 7

Does this work with a wireless keyboard / mouse combo?  I have a logitec keyboard and mouse combo that use a single USB receiver.

Accepted Answer

It should work just fine with your logitech combo.  I have logitech mouse plugged into the front usb port that works well.

Question 8

will this support 2 monitors or just one single monitor?

Accepted Answer

Just one single monitor, your choice.

Question 9

I'm interested in using this unit to share a mouse and keyboard amongst 3 pc's but at the moment don't want to share a monitor will this unit support this while preserving the option to share a monitor in the future ? Thanks

Accepted Answer

I have used it while working on a monitor that did not have DVI. The USB for kbd and mouse was plugged into the PC while the monitor connection was not. Worked fine for me. I use this unit every day, rock solid, would buy again.

Question 10

I notice certain gaming keyboards like the G.SKILL RIPJAWS KM780 MX Mechanical Gaming Keyboard require two USB ports to function properly. Will the KVM shared USB port in the front support the second USB connection of this keyboard?

Accepted Answer

I Personally had issues with USB devices like my Logitech gaming keyboard, the device worked but the software would not be able to interprut the device properly. I'm going to assume it was a power issue. The port on the kvm might not supply enough power for devices like gaming keyboards. Where a normal keyboard will work fine

Questions & Answers