[TriLUG] Re: KVM recommedations

[Scott Chilcote]

Hi Jerry,

Based on my experience it's the cable that's at fault when there's 
ghosting on the display.

I've tried a handful of different cables on KVM switches (and just plain 
monitor switches) in the last couple of years, and I find that the 
higher quality cables definitely make a difference.

The first thing to look for in a monitor cable are the ferrite beads at 
either end of the cable.  These look like plastic cylinders, and they 
need to be at both ends an inch or two away from each connector.  If the 
cable doesn't have them, it's only useful for low-bandwidth situations. 
  Send it to someone who's still using VGA.

The other thing I'd check for is if it's unusually thin and flexy; I've 
seen a couple like this shipped with KVM switches, but they didn't have 
the beads so I didn't waste time on them.

I have a Belkin OmniView 4-port KVM, but I wouldn't recommend it for use 
with Linux/XFree86.  Every other time you switch it the mouse no longer 
works correctly under XFree86.  It also sometimes stops communicating 
with my keyboard after switching, requiring several switches back and 
forth to reestablish communication.

For my next round I'm considering a USB-capable KVM switch like the ones 
made by IOGear.  Since I can still use this one I haven't reached 
critical mass on this yet.   ;-)

Luck,

                     Scott C.

Jerry wrote:
> Hello,
> 	I'm using a Belkin Omniview with Omniview cables, a boxed set of all
> the cables needed to connect a computer to the switch. The cables were
> not expensive ($20 I think for the ten foot set) so I suspect there are
> better. With the six foot video cable if I put my nose to the screen I
> can see some ringing making ghost images to the right of high contrast
> edges. I can't see it at normal viewing distance. With the ten foot
> video cable I can see the ringing from normal viewing distance but it
> isn't enough to be a problem for me. In setting up I tried three or four
> monitors that turned out had wildly differing degrees of ringing. I'm
> using a midrange flat panel now (Viewsonic VA720).
> 	I have noticed in the past that certain monitors did not handle
> extension cables well and others did. Our conference room has a video
> projector with a fifty foot video cable and it looks great. So there are
> at least two factors in determining the amount of ringing: the cable and
> the monitor.
> 
> Jerry