Iogear GCS1758 8-Port MiniView Ultra+ KVM Switch

Average customer rating: 4.0

Good KVM with some significant limitations

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Iogear GCS1758 8-Port MiniView Ultra+ KVM Switch

Manufacturer: IOGEAR
Product Group: CE
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B0002D6QIA

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Product Description

IOGEAR's new eight-port Miniview Ultra+ KVM switch is the ideal tool to help reduce redundant hardware. Eight monitors, mice and keyboards are simply too expensive, bulky and inconvenient for most system administrators. Why bother when you can control all eight, or even up to 512 computers with a single keyboard, monitor and mouse? The added audio support allows you to enjoy music while working. Just think of the time, space and money you'll save, and added fun. The New Miniview Ultra+ is much more than a simple eight-port KVM switch. The dual interface support allows you to connect both PS/2 and USB computers on the same switch. The multi-platform support allows you to control Windows-based computers, Sun Solaris systems, Linux, or even Macs by a single KVM switch. IOGEAR extended the multi-platform support by supporting the special keys on both Sun and Mac keyboards. This KVM switch also comes with the IOGEAR VSE technology, which provides excellent video resolution - up to 2048 x 1536. Built-in AutoScan mode lets you conveniently monitor every attached computer for a specified amount of time, while our On Screen Display (OSD) technology allows you to assign a unique name to each computer and access it via a smooth menu-driven interface. With its 1U, 19" rack-mountable casing and status-monitoring LEDs, the Miniview Ultra+ is the perfect switch for your server room or any other multi-computer environment.

Customer Reviews:

Good KVM with some significant limitations.......2007-02-18

History

I have been using KVM switches for well over 10 years on my primary desktop as well as in a number of different situations (most of the others were support situations like computer labs, testing areas, server rooms, etc.). I am an advanced keyboardist (well over 70 WPM) and I am picky about my input devices (I use an Avant Stellar keyboard, a 2,000 DPI cordless laser mouse, and an iGesture pad as my primary input devices).

Functionality

I specifically purchased the 8-port IOGear MiniView Ultra+ (GCS1758). This KVM has some very impressive features. It supports a wide variety of video modes, as well as having a unique on-screen menu for changing computers and adjusting the settings of the KVM. It is very responsive to the change keystrokes and does a reasonable job of retaining the state of the keys used (num-lock and scroll-lock states).

Like most KVMs it uses a keystroke combination to change states (num-lock followed by the minus key "-"). Unlike most, when you do this you get a visual confirmation asking for the computer to switch to. This is a very cool feature and for the first time means that you really don't have to have the KVM within your sight-line to see what computer you are using. In the past I've done everything from using different primary cursors on the mouse to changing the background of each computer to identify it. This makes all that work unnecessary.

The KVM also has a menu which lists all of the computers that are currently active and you can arrow through the menu to select the computer you want. It lets you customize the name of each computer so that they are no longer just numbers. This is a wonderful feature. I don't have the KVM cascaded, but the documentation indicates that you can cascade multiple KVMs to double, triple, or more the number of computers you can switch from one keyboard. Hopefully the menus allow you to walk through the chain in a clear fashion.

I've seen many reviewers claiming that they are getting no ghosting through this KVM. Unfortunately that is not my experience. I am getting a slight ghosting from the switch to my NEC AccuSync (in 1280x1024 at 85Hz). I did with my previous KVM as well. I was hoping that the IOGear custom cabling would resolve this problem, but apparently not. No monitor adjustment has any noticeable effect on the ghosting, but it's not really that distracting (maybe I've just been living with it for too long). Frankly, I have never had a KVM switch that didn't cause a little ghosting (from the expensive Black Box and IOGear KVMs to the cheap Belkins, they all seem to ghost). I've just accepted it as the price I pay for the incredible convenience. One of these days I'll probably switch to a high-end LCD monitor, which tends to not have ghosting problems.

I haven't used the audio switching capability, so I can't comment on how well that works, but frankly the simplicity of electrically switching audio is such that I doubt there would be an issue there.

Problems and annoyances

One of the things that is most annoying about the menu system is that they are not really related to each other in implementation. If you use the num-lock-minus solution you can then type a number (say 3) and Enter to jump to that computer. If you use the scroll-lock twice method it brings up a menu where the number keys are completely ignored so you have to use the arrows to select a computer and press enter.

It would not have been difficult to support the numbers in one menu and the arrows in the other! It seems clear that these two interfaces were developed separately and no thought was given to creating a unified, consistent, user interface. So, it's like using two separate devices rather than feeling like you are using one piece of equipment.

One of the strangest annoyances is the way the unit will not allow the Alt or Control keys to be held down for extended periods of time. This is annoying in a number of situations, but none more often than when switching applications with Alt-Tab. For some reason the box let's up the "virtual" alt key after a few seconds so that instead of continuing on to the next application I suddenly pop into an application in the middle of the list. This "feature" is driving me quite insane.

Another minor annoyance is the power light on the front of the unit. It's amazingly bright. I had to cover it with a piece of electrical tape because it was nearly blinding me. Every computer has a light and none of them are a problem, but the main power light is at least 4 times as bright as these others. It's minor but strange that this one light is so much brighter than the rest.

I had thought that I had read that this device allowed switching other devices other than keyboards and mice, but unfortunately that was a different device because this one doesn't do any of that. I was hoping to be able to switch my iGesture finger pad and possibly a few other devices, but I'm just SOL. Considering the cost of this device, it's annoying that it doesn't have the features of their lower-end 2-port USB switch. Maybe they will add features to the unit in a future BIOS upgrade (but I'm not holding my breath since even if they do they probably won't remember to post the upgrade to the web site).

Unsupported Equipment

Unfortunately I now have a list of equipment that they don't support. First, according to their support they don't support "all" USB devices (even wired). They specifically don't support PS/2 keyboards or mice through translators. They don't support wireless keyboards or wireless mice. I've read from others that they don't support plugging the keyboard into the mouse port, and visa-versa (so any combination device is out). They don't support sharing any devices that otherwise appear to be mice to the computer, such as my iGesture pad isn't supported as a mouse.

Tech Support

Their tech support proved to be well below par. I initially e-mailed them about the problems mentioned above and instead of a helpful reply I received a form-letter telling me that I should call their toll number for tech support (there is no toll-free number in either the supplied documentation or the e-mail).

When I called their support number they informed me that they had no idea what the blinking code meant (I got the impression from every support agent I spoke to that the fact that lights could blink on the keyboard was a complete surprise to them). I got disconnected from their support (I am not quite ready to say that I was hung up on) multiple times.

Also, aside from not helping me with my problem, their support made it clear that they don't take notes while helping customers since every time I spoke to an agent I had to start from the beginning and give them all of my contact information. They did not give me any indication that this pulled up any history from my previous calls (all of which were made the same day).

I finally spoke to a "pre-sales" tech support agent who admitted that they had only tested their own PS/2 to USB cable and that, while it worked for them, they still would not officially support this method of connecting a keyboard to their device. I did end up finding a PS/2 to USB translator that worked, but I had to buy, and try, several (the one I ended up with was purchased from a local store and has no manufacturer's name for me to share).

Their web site was also less than useful in helping me. They don't mention on their site this lack of support for PS/2 to USB cables. They do have a downloadable BIOS on their web site, unfortunately this is also useless as the BIOS available on the web site is version 3.1 and the BIOS that came in the unit that I purchased is 3.5.341. Clearly they don't keep their web site up-to-date. This is another symptom of their lack of "support" for support, I suspect. 99% of their web site is dedicated to sales and the lackluster remainder is support. After a year of having the device the web site still has not been updated. To not update your web site in the last 4 versions of the bios with a year to do so means that the chance of my problems ever getting fixed are pretty much exactly zero.

Conclusion

After living with this device for almost a year I find that it is better at managing my computers than my previous KVM and I still like the menus, but the way that the shift keys (shift, control, and alt) won't stay down drives me batty. There are a few situations in the last year where I have actually unplugged the keyboard from the KVM and plugged it directly into one of my computers for a while to stop this from happening. It is so pervasive that when I use my laptop on the road I sometimes am surprised to find the alt key staying pressed when switching applications and the shift key staying pressed when multi-selecting items in a list.

I have a plain old mouse connected to the KVM and I use that mouse when using my "secondary" computers. For my primary computer and my laptop I move the USB wireless receiver for my 2,000 DPI mouse from one to the other.

If they would fix this one problem with the keyboard support I could live with the few other annoyances easily. I wouldn't mind them supporting wireless USB devices as well, but since they can't properly support the K in KVM, supporting wireless mice is obviously asking for the moon.

If you are buying this to switch between computers that you do not use on a daily basis (like in a support situation) and you can be picky about what devices you plug into it then this switch will probably be wonderful for you. If you have cordless devices or will be using the switch on a daily basis you may want to look elsewhere.

Also, if this is your first KVM and you think you may need support, there really isn't any so you should skip it.

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