Does such a computer device exist?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve inherited three different computers of varying vintages. Is there any doohickey that I can plug the monitor cable into that would then have outlets on the other side going to the various computers.

I have only one monitor, and it’s a pain to switch. This way, whichever one I fired up would display without a single hitch.

Any ideas???

2

blackbox.com probably has something. Call their ordering line and describe your situation to them.

3

I’ve seen these. check out tigerdirect.com

4

They’re called KVM switches, which stands for Keyboard, Video, Mouse.

Belkin (http://www.belkin.com) makes nice ones that I like, but there are also a lot of others out there.

5

Sure… they are used all the time.

Though they get more expensive with the number of boxes you’re hooking up to them.

CompUSA.COM poped one up right away when I keyed in the search term “Monitor Switchbox”

6

There are good ones and there are bad monitor switches. The cheap ones that are just a mechanical switch don’t work very well. The one I tried corrupted the signal so that I had ghost images of everything just a little to the side of the real image it was useless try to get a good powered one. Unfortunately they are about $100.

7

I second what was written above on KVM switches. We just installed one at work for 3 different servers, and it works great. Before buying your switch, make sure it has the right connections for your computers (e.g. the one we’re using at work only has PS/2 connectors for mice and keyboards, so if one of the machines is expecting a serial mouse, it won’t work. This would only be a problem for ancient computers).

Also - if your computers are of different types (e.g. a Sun machine, Mac(?)) you will need a more sophisticated KVM switch.

Another solution would be to network the machines then just use one as the “master”, and remote control the others using some software solution like VNC. I find 99% of what needs to be done can be done with remote control - only things like installing hardware and operating system require you to have physical access to the computer.

8

I’m using a 4-port Starview KVM switch, and it’s great.