[Gllug] OT: Good KVM switch for a very heterogeneous environment.

[James Hawtin]

> Avocent, Aten, Startech. I'm inferring Adder are the best as they are
> the most expensive but... they are the most expensive so I'm wondering
> 

Raitan and Rose are brands to add to the list. My experience of Adder has
been not that impressive and I have used a few of them, I like Avocent best.
Infact alot of its equipement is rebadged by HP and Black Box, I have an HP
(Avocent) IP KVM which is every good, but a bit of over kill for what you want!

> 1) If any other brands occupy the same sort of territory, solidity or
> feature-wise e.g. do any others offer constant keyboard and mouse
> emulation and suchlike?

Some cheap USB kvms switch the USB channel rather than being an aways on
device, which is why many people use PS2 for KVM. Converters to do USB
(keyboard/Mouse) to PS2 computer are expensive. So if you want any PS2 you
best off getting one of them.

Keyboards with mouse like functions on them can cause problems
, you need single function devices.

> 2) With regard to particular models - are there any well-seasoned
> industry favourites I should look for or is the KVM market as messy as
> the printer one?

You need to decide what Features you want first, to get a better 
recommendation.

a) VGA/DVI/Dual Link DVI 
Be careful with DVI if you want HDCP encrypted transmission to your
monitor, as not all KVMs will do this via a DVI.
b) PS2/USB Hosts
c) Number of Hosts
d) Audio

I am presuming you don't need any of these.

e) Multiple screens/Matrix
f) IP
g) Remote Operation/Cat 5
h) Multiple Users

James
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