New Toy

well, i bought myself a new toy for x-mas. it's a usb kvm switch with file transfer. lol. that's a bit of a mouthful. a kvm switch is one for running two computers from one set of controls, k=keyboard, v=video, and m=mouse. in other words, you can use one keyboard, one monitor and one mouse to control two computers. this item is also a usb crossover cable, of sorts, which means i can transfer files back and forth between my two main computers and not have to use microsoft screwball networking (i can never get that to work right for very long) and you dont need a crossover cable and you dont need a router or anything else. it also has an extra usb port built into it so you can connect a printer or external harddrive or any other usb device and access it through both computers! now, that's just slick!

here's the link where i had it bought: http://www.iogear.com/product/GCS661U/ . these guys at iogear are pretty innovative. take a look around there for more slick stuff

i was a little concerned when i first opened the package that there was no software inside. i knew it needed software from a description i had read. but, no cd or dvd. odd. then i looked at the 'what's in this box' list of things and there was no software supposed to be there. ok, that's a bit odd, but let's read the manual and find out what's going on here. as i read and got to the installation procedure i found that the software is built into the device! ok, that's handy as hell. no cd to lose! lol. it also gave very simple instructions and following them was a breeze and in no time i had the thing hooked up and running.

as i finished the install, lo and behold, the desktop from my 'remote' computer suddenly showed up on my main or 'console' computer! wow. remote desktop on a mini-usb network! very, very slick! and, sure enough, i could operate everything on the remote computer from the console! i was just grinning the whole time. i love simple and i love when it works. so, i played around with that a bit and finally closed it down.

the next day i decided to try out the extra usb port on this thing. i already had my printer hooked up to my xp machine, but not my vista. the xp machine is the 'remote' computer on this. so, i installed my printer software on the vista machine and when it asked me to plug in the usb printer i did so, but i did so in the kvm switch usb port. vista and the software saw it just fine! i proceeded to do some printing and all worked just fine.

folks, if you've ever wanted to transfer files from one computer to another without having to hassle with setting up a microsoft network or without having to burn cd's or dvd's, then this may the product for you. look around on the iogear website. they have some other configurations of kvm's more elaborate than this one. i could easily see wiring my house with usb cable with plugs in every room and just connecting all computers in the house to one major usb kvm hub. now, that would be slick!

the one i bought is the one with the link to it. it was $50 u.s. for the hassles this has already saved me, i consider this money well spent!

check out the rest of iogear's website. they have some other interesting toys

and merry christmas

hey sweet Craig, just trying to find a miny scanner for slides and negs, do you have one of those?

they look pretty nice and they aren't too expensive ......... cool