Comments on: Replacing a maintenance kit

By: howard2nd

howard2nd — Sun, 12 Dec 2004 11:03:48 +0000

NO!
You can set the laptop as a client terminal and connect to the machine being worked on. There is no way I have found to drive the laptop display from the other machine’s video out. No way to connect the laptop keyboard/mouse to the 2nd computer’s inputs. AND YES the engineer was right you would most likely ‘FRY’ your laptop in the attempt.
It is possible hawever to use the Internet KVM systems to pretend the previous. get the IP dongle that attaches to the computer to be workded on (Computer video out & keyboard/mouse inputs) install the client software on your laptop. NOTE: you will probably need the ‘maintenance’ kit (monitor, keyboard, & mouse the first you set this up on a system.

By: quiettiger

quiettiger — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 13:01:48 +0000

Great idea. I’m trying to find a way to maintain the Internet connection while I do this though.

I deal with a lot of 220 and 100 power problems out here. The laptop will do both but I was warned by another technician that most anything I do will risk frying the laptop. He seemed to be pretty insistent than anything other than a real deal external monitor could fry my laptop.

I know there are other solutions or devices out there that might give me the bypass but I am not up on all of the cool stuff out there.

The other problem is there are no USB ports on the computer I am trying to access. I also can’t use a wireless solution.

The cheap solution is just hang a cheesy 15 flat screen monitor on the system but that means more gear. I want to try and lighten what I carry.

By: kerm

kerm — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 12:32:41 +0000

Look at realvnc.com. There may be a solution there for a terminal services type connection to either server or workstation.

By: blueknight

blueknight — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 11:18:14 +0000

If I understand you correctly, it sounds like what you need is a 2 port Belkin KVM switch which will allow you to control multiple computers through a single keyboard and mouse. Take a look at http://www.belkin.com – select KVM then click Small Office/Home Office & Desktop Solutions.
We have several of them around here so we don’t have to clutter our desks with multiple keyboards, mice and monitors. The price is fair also at around $70.00.

Hope this helps you out.

Jim