multi keybds to same PC

[gangsta]

I am looking for a home-made solution to hook multiple keyboards (users) to the same workstation which has multidisplay /multi-vga cards enabled (at the same time not switching) .

I know there are companies that sell expensive cards to do this , but these are just sound/vga cards with some expensive cables.

[Rainbow]

The only way you can connect more that one keyboard is USB.
I think that there is a software that can make one PC with two graphics cards, two keyboards and two mice act as two PCs, but don't know where to find it.

[edwin]

If you only need to share the desktop with other users, get VNC and a network.

[gangsta]

a software that can make one PC with two graphics cards, two keyboards and two mice act as two PCs, but don't know where to find it.

thanks, that is what I am looking for. I'd appreciate any info from any one reading this thread regarding who makes this software ; or at least the name of the actual application.

[gangsta]

If you only need to share the desktop with other users, get VNC and a network.

I am afraid I am not sure what "desktop" are you referring to; a Desktop PC or the Windows Desktop.
I assume it was the first.

I have extra VGA cards, extra 10/base-t cards, extra modems, sound cards, and of course USB, PS2, Audio, COM, & VGA cables.

can't I employ all these together to achieve a multiuser scenario.

say for example, the main PC has 3 vga, 3 sound output, & 3 NICs. And a shared DSL connection.

first user = Word Processing or Office application
2nd user = Reading/writing POP3 e-mail or browsing the net
3rd user = Playing a game or some multimedia application

of course all of whom should be able to access the DSL net connection on demand. (I know ICS is another matter but I am just giving an example and DSL is not the matter at hand)

surely it would be a waste of money to go buy even more network cards if I can use the ones I have to achieve the same result. That is unless there is some benefits for having a VNC that I am not seeing here.

If you could elaborate on how this would work in an alternative VNC solution?

thanks

[edwin]

Three seperate networked PCs, one VNC server, two VNC clients. A bit like PcAnywhere, but this one is freeware.

This seems not to be what you are looking for.

[gangsta]

Three seperate networked PCs, one VNC server, two VNC clients. A bit like PcAnywhere, but this one is freeware.

This seems not to be what you are looking for.

I get ya , but this is not what I am aiming for. I mean to use only one PC with 3 fold outputs for everything ; multi display, multi sound; multi keyboard & mouse. WithOUT PcAnywhere or Netmeeting.

Just assume like they are virtual desktops on the same PC but each is with a different monitor; mouse, keybd.

what I need is a software to be the "brains" of this whole operation...

I remember reading a review of one of these desktop sharing cards that mentions it installs some kind of server proggie that manages all this.
This was 3 years ago so a lot of things may have changed now.

In any case, where can I download this VNC server? let me give it a try ...

[soupy]

http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/07/0 ... g/?related

[gangsta]

went to that company's site , and after 30 min of searching I couldn't find a trace of that product CNN/idg is talking about. I checked th older news releases and yes hey had some thing back in June 2001 but now it is not on their product list for some reason ; must have been discontinued or some thing like that.

The price CNN mentioned was $200 for the additional desktop hookups (plus user must provide monitor, mouse, & keybd). It provides only 4mb VGA display...!

[Moonwolf]

Gangsta, i think ive seen this stuff before... in a tigerdirect catalog, actually. check www.tigerdirect.com i remember it being expensive, but it does exist.

[gangsta]

thx moonwolf
As you said, they are quite expensive for the sum of their parts. I have seen them in the local shops 2 years ago but the price was an overkill.
Of course we need a server/proggie to make it work. ???

[Moonwolf]

i dont know if this is what you are looking for, exactly, but the part numbers on www.tigerdirect.com for the slitters are: Mouse: p55-1002 keyboard: p55-1004 Monitor: p55-1012 Mouse+keyboard on USB: p55-1020. There is also another one, that i cannot find right now that actually lets one computer function as two, i've seen it before. sorry i didnt give lnks. im looking at the catalog.
Hope it helps!

[gangsta]

thx , i took a look just now , and they seem like normal Y splitters. As a matter of fact I have one USB->2 PS2 already but this is just a normal adapter.

Infact if one connects 2 Kbs or 2 mice they both control the same cursor .
What I am talking about is sort of a virtual Desktop splitter, where each user has a different desktop used for a different activity than the other user on the same PC. This cannot be accomplished by mere splitters -- which are not the real issue here.

Computers running win98 + OS can handle multiple desktop display but that requires in addition to the hardware, a software plug-in / server application, that tells windows explorer how to handle each use.

If you look thru Windows 98 Help you should find a reference to Multi Display support; which by default allows for another set of keyboard-mouse input..... but what kind of proggie handles that? we need more than just a driver you know.

so this is my delimma

The item you said you couldn't find on tiger.com to make a pc function as two is basically a "2nd sound+ 2nd VGA+ 2nd input" single card package that does that . But if you already have a bunch of additional PCI cards not plugged in; why not put them to good use to support a 2nd user desktop or more. All that is missing is a proggie to handle them.

Now we need help with that point. Hardware multi/splitting is not really a problem right now.

I hope you see my point.

[Rainbow]

Look what I found http://www.thincomputinginc.com/betwin/

[edwin]

$80 per user. Can't buy an additional system for that...

http://www.thincomputinginc.com/betwin/download.html