You can imagine the waste of space and money if you had to purchase a separate keyboard, video monitor and mouse for every computer or server you operated in a data center. KVM switches are extremely practical and relatively affordable devices.

Hot Key operations provide immediate access to features such as computer switching, and auto-scanning. With a simple hot key on the keyboard you can switch to the other computer. It is ideal for the home office where business files are kept on one computer and personal files on another. With the built-in audio support, you can also share a set of speakers between two computers.

Small interface devices at the computers connect to the keyboard, video and mouse ports of the computer. They convert these signals to a format suitable for category 5 cable and transmit this data to the user stations that decode it into normal analog signals suitable for the peripherals. As many as 31 additional switches can be added in a daisy chain configuration, allowing up to 512 computers to be controlled from a single console. A seven-segment front panel LED displays each station's position for easy identification. In most cases, all you will need is the KVM switch, enough cables to go to all of your computers, your keyboard, monitor and mouse, and the computers themselves. That is the basic configuration and more advanced systems may require more components.

But if you're trying to cram two PCs, monitors, keyboards and mice into a single workspace, or using two computers by reconnecting the monitor and other cables, the KVM switch can be very useful. The box is too small to really "install" anywhere, but I just need to tap my Ctrl key twice to switch computers, so the box is out of sight. It works - that's the important part. The user can switch from one computer to another without interrupting print jobs, downloads or other functions being handled by connected peripherals.

The KVM switch not only allows you to share your monitor, keyboard and mouse but you can also share microphone and speakers. With just a simple press of a button, this KVM switch eliminates the hassle of cable swapping and switching between 4PCs.