ATEN CS661 Laptop USB KVM Switch Reviewed

[rogerbinns]

This has got to be the dumbest product ever. It is Windows only, and only works once Windows is up and running (eg you can't see BIOS boot screens). The only benefit is if the two machines can't contact each other over the network, but you could just plug another network cable directly between the machines to overcome that. You may as well just use one of the regular VNC implementations out there.

Something that is more effective is using Synergy from http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ - each system still has to use its own display (not an issue for laptops!) but you only use one keyboard and mouse. It also shares the clipboard across machines and is cross platform (Linux, Windows, Mac etc). Heck it will even synchronise screen savers!

 

[schultzter]

Anything that relies on human reliability is totally un-reliable

My issue with this, and the ClickFree Transformer, is that they rely on Windows Autorun being enabled. On my machines it never is - primarily because Windows will do something I didn't want it to but also because who knows what malicious trick is part of the autorun on the CD you just popped in!!!

 

[mikeh2]

autorun

Anything that tricks autorun and autoplay by pretending to be a CD is scary. However, you can turn off autorun totally. Really, totally. See
http://blogs.computerworld.com/the_...o_be_protected_from_infected_usb_flash_drives