Unusual request

S

Smeghead

New Member
A former colleage of mine is setting up his own small business and asked me if I would help setting up his computer systems as he is a bit of a technophobe.
Ideally, he would like two desktops, one in his office, and one on the front desk. However, due to financial restraints, he can only afford one of these computers to begin with and he asked me if there were any stop gap solutions that would allow him to access a computer that is in the office from a monitor, mouse and keyboard that was on the front desk.

To be clear, he wants to run 2 monitors, keyboards and mice, from 2 seperate locations on a single tower unit, until he can afford the second tower. But only one set of peripherals at once of course.

The front desk is about 6 metres away from where the tower would be in the office and there is a solid wall between them.

I have suggested using a laptop to begin with so that it could easily be moved from one physical location to the other but he doesn't like that idea. He's just looking at the big picture where he would eventually have 2 desktops and no use for this laptop then.

I have no worries when it comes to networking multiple computers, but this is a problem I have never come across before and I'm not sure how to go about it, if it's even possible. None of the hardware has been purchased yet.
 
Well you could just run a dual monitor setup with a long cord and clone the display but i'm lost on the keyboard and mouse. Can you run two at the same time in a system?
 
I realise dual cloned monitors is probably the way to go, but I will have to make sure the computer has two monitor ports and need a long extension cable.
And if I plug a second usb mouse into my computer right now, either will control the cursor, but they don't like being used at the same time (but thats not a problem.) Don't have a spare keyboard around to try that. I guess I'm after any possible solutions that don't involve really long usb and monitor extension cables.

Someone mentioned using a kvm switch to me in passing, but to my knowledge, those are for multiple computers to a single set of peripherals, not the other way around, so he either knew something I don't or didn't know what he was talking about.

Edit: Don't even need 2 monitor ports if I get a splitter cable come to think of it.
 
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surely you could use the can use wireless keyboard and mouse which stop the need for those wires, ive also heard of wireless transmitters that can transmit a signal from the computer to the monitor which could work but im not sure how expensive they are tho
 
Most wirelss keyboard/mice I've come across don't have the sort of range I'm wanting, though there may be some out there that do, I guess I'll have to look into what wireless hardware is available at what cost. Currently I think I'm leaning towards telling him to buy two less powerful machines than what he was originally intending.
 
Smeghead said:
... Currently I think I'm leaning towards telling him to buy two less powerful machines than what he was originally intending.
Click to expand...

A wise suggestion! :good:

As you have already found out, you can use two keyboards and mice attached at the same time. Without using USB and VGA extensions your only bet is to go wireless. Standard low-power bluetooth devices have a maximum effective range of 10m. As long as you don't have unusually thick or lead painted walls, you should be able to reach 6m with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. You can also put a bluetooth dongle on a long USB cord and snake it up into the ceiling to get nearer to the front desk. It is doable.

For VGA, you can get VGA over ethernet extenders. Granted, this is not a wireless solution (an no, this isn't ethernet that you can just plug into a WiFi router), but you can run a very long ways with such units with little to no signal degradation. Also, you would just be using an ethernet cable for the run instead of a VGA cable.
 
After a lot of searching, I've found a number of possible options such as reverse kvm switches that I didn't know exsisted until today, ethernet extenders as you mentioned and longer range wireless equipment than I'm used to.
All in all, the cost in cabling and other bits of hardware that would be needed comes very close to the cost of a half decent tower, monitor, keyboard and mouse bundle, and in some cases costs more.

Looks like he will have to make do with a single computer for the time being, or downgrade the specs of what he wants, to get two now.
 
You are correct. The cost of all the extra equipment (aside from the extra keyboard, mouse and monitor) will be lost when you transition to two machines. That extra equipment cost will get close to the cost of a second computer. The KVM and extra cables add up.

Stay simple if he must do a temporary setup.
 
SMEGHEAD!

I love red dwarf! :D:D:D

Definately just get two less powerfull machines. At least a core 2 duo 2.4ghz and 2gb of ram, and you'll have no trouble with business type stuff. Maybe run windows xp as it is a lot less memory intensive, business stuff doesn't need the latest directx, and about 99% of applications are supported on windows xp.
 
You could run 2 DVI or the VGA through a wall which means have the tower in the centre and the 2 on each side, then plug 2 keyboards in and run those through the wall (You can buy a usb extender lol) and then make sure the keyboard you bought has a usb port on it for the mouse then your off to the races
 
I've talked to him again and explained the situation, he's decided to just get one computer at the specs he originally wanted and make the most of it until he can afford another one. Perhaps not the best solution but he thinks he can make it work and thats what he wants to do.
Not gonna argue with him about it, I'm just there to make him aware of his options and set up what he buys, thanks for the help anyway guys.
 
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