This might be a bit hard to explain, but with my computer setup at home, I have one keyboard and mouse, a monitor, and a computer case under the desk. That’s my gaming computer.
When I work from home, I move the monitor over, plug in my HDMI cable, and have a dual monitor setup for work. I have to get on my hands and knees and unplug my mouse/keyboard, bring it up on my desk, and plug it into my laptop. And when I’m done work, I have to put the cables under the desk and get on my hands and knees again to replug it in.
Is there any sort of like, USB extension cord you guys know about where I could have the keyboard/mouse plugged into this hypothetical extension thing, and if I want to switch computers, I just switch the cables from one adapter to another? It’d have to be at least a few feet length
If I understand their description correct, I just plug in my USB stuff into that, and I can switch between which computer is using what?
My only worry with that is taht it doesn’t look like there much cable room with them. There’s probably 4 feet between my laptop and my gaming computer.
If that assumption is correct, then that’s what I need.
This is almost what I want. With this, I’d need two hubs, and manually plug them out/in. The advantage of this is though I wouldn’t need to give such effort to switch mice/keyboard from one to another.
Sounds like Chris is what I need, because I’d only need one (instead of two hubs), and I could also not even need to plug anything in/out; just control which computer is making use of it?
Well it sounds like I need the KVM that Chris mentioned, and I don’t know if I could get an extension for that? I’m not very savvy with anything “hardware” related. These are probably basic assumptions I’m failing at.
The idea is that you have one set of peripherals that are connected to two (or more depending on what you need to do) computers. You just use the KVM to switch between them.
As for cable length, just get some extender cables.
I’d be tempted to avoid that one. VGA cable, pS2 mouse/keyboard connectors - bit dated. I was just showing that as an idea of the kind of thing.
@RyanReese, do a bit of an audit of the connectivity on your two computers and your peripherals. That would give us an idea what would be a good option for a KVM.
It has 4 ft of cord. 2 feet towards your desktop, 2 feet towards your laptop with the KVM sitting somewhere in the middle of that. You can always get a USB extension cable and a HDMI extension cable
Which honestly, might be enough to skip needing the KVM, as then you could have the plugs sitting on top of the desk and not have to bend down to unplug them… You simply unplug them from on top of the desk, plug them into your laptop, then when done, unplug them from the laptop and plug them into the extensions again.
I think that’s sort of the route David had proposed. Obviously if I could even avoid plugging them in/out, which Chris’s KVM idea seems to support, would be better.
For simplicity sake, I’d go with a hub if it would be easiest.
More what output connections are available on each computer; so many USB ports, what VGA/DVI/HDMI output ports, that kind of thing. So you can work out what ports the KVM needs, OR what adaptors you might need to factor into the picture.
I saw this on Amazon, but it may not be relevant (or affordable) if you don’t need HDMI.