2port Omniview USB KVM Switch

Rating:
Summary: Terrible product -- terrible support
Review: Do not waste your time with this product. This product do not do justice to Belkin's reputation for good products. The build quality is great... but that's about it. Keys stick, Mac keyboard support is very limited even after updates to the firmware. Even with the most expensive cables from Belkin itself I experienced video gosting. The solution given to me by support folks was to lower the refresh rate and the resolution I'm using on my monitor!.. on a 21 inch monitor do you really want 800 x 600?

Try the IO Gear solution instead, that's what I'm using now and have been using for about a year now. The only one thing that the Belkin KVM did that the IO gear does not do is automatically switch not just the keyboard and mouse but the other USB ports. You have to switch those via the key strokes and the on-screen menu. But the ghosting is not so prominent and at least things are not buggy.

Hope this helps.

Rating:
Summary: Unreliable, no support for repeating keys
Review: Four points:

First, the setup for this product is a nightmare. I can only guess as to what the magical sequence of events was that actually caused the thing to eventually be seen by both computers. It was a long frustrating process.

Second, it has no support for repeating keys, meaning you can only hold down a key for about 5 seconds before it stops sending the signal. This may not seem like a big deal, but there are many applications which require you to hold down shift or control. Try ctrl+clicking a number of files for example, or holding down backspace while you erase a bunch of characters in your word processor. Forget using Photoshop® or other graphics applications (trying to add to an existing selection by holding shift, for example, is very frustrating.) Gamers will also find this a huge inconvenience.

Third, whenever we experience a power bump, or sometimes for no reason at all, the thing will start beeping incessantly. The only way to get it to stop is to pull its power, which is no small task for me considering there's a million wires behind my desk where this thing sits.

Fourth, tech support is a joke. I called about my second point, and although I find evidence on the web of people having this problem all over the place, they seem to have no idea about it. The tech support rep thought for a few minutes, then put me on hold for several minutes, then came back and said he didn't know, he'll email me some information if he ever finds anything out about it. By the way, there is a firware upgrade, but it doesn't address the repeating keys issue, and it turns your left ctrl key into a hotkey for the switch...why, I have no idea. The left ctrl key is one of the most commonly used keys.

Sorry I don't have a good alternative to offer (someone previously mentioned IOGear, but I can't speak to that), but I would strongly discourage this product.

Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY!
Review: I've never been so disappointed by a product. This unit has more bugs than the amazon (the rainforest, not this site). After 5 seconds it resets the signal from the keyboard input. So, say you're playing a game or scanning through a video, every 5 seconds you have to re-press the key. It also gets confused when switching back and forth between Mac and PC, making the all-important function key, alt key and control key unresponive or completely dead on the Mac. Supposedly you can update the bios to fix this (using a proprietary cable that you have to plug into the antiquated parallel port), but when i attempted it, it killed the switch completely. Belkin tech support's answer to the death of my $90 investment was "replace the unit". I know there aren't a whole lot of other options, but ANYTHING is better than this.

Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY!
Review: I've never been so disappointed by a product. This unit has more bugs than the amazon (the rainforest, not this site). After 5 seconds it resets the signal from the keyboard input. So, say you're playing a game or scanning through a video, every 5 seconds you have to re-press the key. It also gets confused when switching back and forth between Mac and PC, making the all-important function key, alt key and control key unresponive or completely dead on the Mac. Supposedly you can update the bios to fix this (using a proprietary cable that you have to plug into the antiquated parallel port), but when i attempted it, it killed the switch completely. Belkin tech support's answer to the death of my $90 investment was "replace the unit". I know there aren't a whole lot of other options, but ANYTHING is better than this.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent doorstop, that's about it
Review: If there was a "zero star" rating, I'd give that. Doesn't even deserve the single star.
We argued with this device for two days, and were never able to get it to work.
First, it does not come with any of the cables necessary to work it. Once you include the cost of the cables, you're looking at $150.00 total.
Second, it simply doesn't work. It did not recognize the USB keyboard that we plugged into it, yet if you if unplugged it, it started with the constant beeping. There was supposed to be a firmware flash that would fix the problem, but the flash does not work. Finally, we found a workaround, by plugging the keyboad into one of the auxiliary USB ports, and plugging a USB camera into the keyboard port.....that worked. For about 8 hours. Then, at 4 o'clock in the morning, when the whole house is asleep (and all of the computers are powered down, mind you!!) it starts up wiht the incessant beeping again, for no reason that anyone could find.
About 5 hours later, (we were awake by now, at least) while trying to figure out a network issue, it suddenly stopped working. No beeping, no nothing....just the keyboard and mouse became completely unavailable to either PC.
While trying to fix that, it started with the beeping again. My husband REMOVED THE POWER CABLE......and it still kept beeping.
I have to say, this has been the most disastrous piece of equipment we have every purchases for any of our PCs. And we're not alone. Do an internet search on this device, and you'll see that the vast majority of people who have attempted to use this device have discovered it's been a massive waste of money.

Rating:
Summary: Mac compatability availble, only if you have a PC
Review: Just bought one of these so I could use 2 Macs at my desk and control them from one keyboard/mouse. One of the reasons I bought this prudoct is because the box said it's Mac compatible, it's not a complete lie, but your in for some work if you're trying to use it with 2 Macs. I bought this on a friday and came in on the weekend to install it, all that fun work of crawling around under the desk connecting a bunch of cables etc.
It's now Tues. (I wasn't in the office on Mon.) and everything was acting weird. As I was typing I would suddenly be stuck in Caps Lock mode when I hadn't hit the Caps Lock Key. Numbers would appear as I typed and reapeat across the screen and I hadn't typed any numbers either. And volume and eject keys did not work at all. After some experimentation I found that the right shift key was acting like a Caps Lock Key and the arrow keys were producing numbers when I used them, sometimes repeating numbers until I diconnected the keyboard (disconnecting the keyboard produces a nasty beeping noise from the KVM box that my boss can hear across the office with his door shut.)
Off to the website, the FAQ has one question, it's not mine. In all fairness the firmware update I need is on the website but it's only AFTER I call tech support and ask to talk to a supervisor that I realize it's what I need. The description of the software update is so poorly worded that it is impossible to determine that it is the solution to my problem. When I do call Tech support (one hour wait, not an 800#, longdistance call) I am told that this doesn't support the Mac special function keys (volume, eject.) I bought my Mac in 2001 and I remember seeing these keys on macs sometime in 2000. As near as I can tell this product was released in 2002. When I talked to a supervisor at Belkin they were trying to claim it was after mac changed there keyboard layouts that they started getting these complaints. It's been 3 years with this keyboard, thats a really lame excuse when your box says you're mac compatable and the copyright dates on the box and literature say 2002.
In order for this product to work with a mac keyboard I have to connect the keyboard to one of the other USB ports. But as I mentioned earlier, not having a keyboard connected to the keyboard port of the KVM produces an earsplitting beeping noise. To get rid of this noise you can either connect another keyboard to the keyboard port completly negating the reason for buying this in the first place. Or I can upgrade the firmware so the stupid thing doesn't beep when there is nothing connected to the keybord port. You can ONLY preform the firmware update that will make it work correctly on a mac by disconnecting the KVM and connecting it to a PC. Let me repeat that, you need to have a PC to preform an upgrade so it will KINDA work on a Mac.

Rating:
Summary: Mac compatability availble, only if you have a PC
Review: Just bought one of these so I could use 2 Macs at my desk and control them from one keyboard/mouse. One of the reasons I bought this prudoct is because the box said it's Mac compatible, it's not a complete lie, but your in for some work if you're trying to use it with 2 Macs. I bought this on a friday and came in on the weekend to install it, all that fun work of crawling around under the desk connecting a bunch of cables etc.
It's now Tues. (I wasn't in the office on Mon.) and everything was acting weird. As I was typing I would suddenly be stuck in Caps Lock mode when I hadn't hit the Caps Lock Key. Numbers would appear as I typed and reapeat across the screen and I hadn't typed any numbers either. And volume and eject keys did not work at all. After some experimentation I found that the right shift key was acting like a Caps Lock Key and the arrow keys were producing numbers when I used them, sometimes repeating numbers until I diconnected the keyboard (disconnecting the keyboard produces a nasty beeping noise from the KVM box that my boss can hear across the office with his door shut.)
Off to the website, the FAQ has one question, it's not mine. In all fairness the firmware update I need is on the website but it's only AFTER I call tech support and ask to talk to a supervisor that I realize it's what I need. The description of the software update is so poorly worded that it is impossible to determine that it is the solution to my problem. When I do call Tech support (one hour wait, not an 800#, longdistance call) I am told that this doesn't support the Mac special function keys (volume, eject.) I bought my Mac in 2001 and I remember seeing these keys on macs sometime in 2000. As near as I can tell this product was released in 2002. When I talked to a supervisor at Belkin they were trying to claim it was after mac changed there keyboard layouts that they started getting these complaints. It's been 3 years with this keyboard, thats a really lame excuse when your box says you're mac compatable and the copyright dates on the box and literature say 2002.
In order for this product to work with a mac keyboard I have to connect the keyboard to one of the other USB ports. But as I mentioned earlier, not having a keyboard connected to the keyboard port of the KVM produces an earsplitting beeping noise. To get rid of this noise you can either connect another keyboard to the keyboard port completly negating the reason for buying this in the first place. Or I can upgrade the firmware so the stupid thing doesn't beep when there is nothing connected to the keybord port. You can ONLY preform the firmware update that will make it work correctly on a mac by disconnecting the KVM and connecting it to a PC. Let me repeat that, you need to have a PC to preform an upgrade so it will KINDA work on a Mac.