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Rating: Summary: Looks nice, but looks are deceiving Review: I was very excited to receive my USB KVM. Having a KVM that is also a USB hub comes in handy. I can connect an external USB drive to the KVM and have it "seen" by the other computers when I switch to them. However, that is were my fondness of the product stops.
The keyboard delay is so annoying. Walk away from the computer long enough for the screen saver to come on and you'll have to wait 20-30 seconds before the keyboard returns. It doesn't make sense, it accepts the Ctl-Alt-Del right away but then sits there before it will accept the first keystroke of the password. A workaround I've found is to switch to another PC and switch back, but that doesn't always work. Also, if the USB keyboard is unpluged for any reason an annoying "chirp" begins and will not shut up...even if you unplug the power it. To get the chirp to stop you have to unplug all of the USB cables or plug the keyboard back in.
I've also had instances where the keyboard and mouse loses all connectivity to a machine. I've had to reboot the machine in order to get the pc to recognize them.
I hope Belkin has a firmware update to fix these problems soon.
Rating: Summary: Could be better Review: Overall the switch works great out of the box, but there are some caveats. First, it doesn't come with the necessary cables, and not just any cables will do; the VGA cable has to be a special kind with male and female connectors and screws on BOTH ends. This can only be found (as far as I can tell) in a special kit that Belkin sells. And you will need two sets, of course, which adds a hidden cost to the price of your switch. Then there's the matter of upgrading the firmware. Although you can connect Macs and PCs running just about any OS, the flash upgrades can apparently only be applied from a PC running Windows 98. How lame is that? It wouldn't be so much of an issue, but on the Mac side I am experiencing keyboard issues which require upgrading. Why they couldn't allow installation of the upgrades via USB instead of through an arcane parallel port cable is beyond me. The last annoyance: on my PC running Win 2000 there is a significant delay after switching before my wireless mouse or Wacom tablet will work - about 10 seconds. No such delay on the Mac, though. Other than that, the unit looks great and handles well.
Rating: Summary: Bad product, bad support Review: There are 3 things you need to know before buying a KVM:
1. In addition to the unit, you will have to buy a slew of expensive cables, many of which it is unlikely you already own.
2. KVM switches as a peripheral in general are notorious for not working properly with any given set of machines/OS's/mice/KB/monitors/videocards.
3. This is one of those units described in #2.
4. Although Belkin officially supports Linux with this product, the customer support I rep I emailed wasnt even able to spell Linux correctly, much less help me get it working.
Rating: Summary: DON'T BUY. Doesn't work! Review: Worst KVM ever. It doesn't work! You loose control of the mouse in minutes... Only a reboot fixes the problem, you cannot switch computers when this happens
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