Re: USB sharing switch

From: J.F. Sebastian (rintin_at_tin.it)
Date: 03/31/05 

Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:39:56 +0200

"Fredje" <fredje110@hotmail.com> wrote :
>
> Thank you very much for your kind reply.
>

you're welcome

>
> Yes, I like your USB hub/USB switch combination idea. The problem is
> that I want to be sure that the USB switch actually supports sharing
> these devices with various Sun & Intel workstations.
>
> Does anyone have experience with this USB switch:
>
> http://www.usbswitch.com/usb_4port_switch.html
>

Well, I did not much read into deep, but that looks like coming
comfortable for the opposite purpouse, share a single usb device
giving automatic access to many computers, I am not sure
how this is handled but looks like if data is coming on a line
from a pc, the line is automatically switched to that requesting
node, wich is perfect for a printer, but I don't think it would
be working fine for a keyboard. For the models I saw in
common electronic shops, the most comfy ones have a button
(one or many) to set wich computer are connected to,
among the ones connected to the switch. I mean for
a device like a keyboard, you should set wich node
it's connected to, while the one you post here looks like
"any computer requesting the peripheral, I will connect it to",
I guess like intercepting the traffic on the data line,
qualifying the device for every node, and so on.

(I prefer my solution, I decide where everything is connected
to at the same time and stop.)

to answer your other question I would say usb compliant devices
should not behave differently on different platforms. If you
disconnect and reconnect a mouse on a sun, it should work
again exactly like on a pc or a mac as well as a printer
or a keyboard, assuming you get the right drivers for each.

I can assure you that beetween windows and linux you get
no problem, I am not sure if a standard pc usb mouse
and keyboard would work on a sun workstation and
viceversa because I didn't try yet, but if they are all
sun workstation with sun keyboards and mouse, I don't
think you should have any problem in switching devices.

ciao, have a good day

MJ