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7. Operation
7.1 Keyboard and Mouse Emulation
The Rackmount ServSwitch™ Brand CAT5 KVM Extenders use a microprocessor
to emulate the presence of a directly connected keyboard and mouse for the
attached PCs. This means that you don’t have to connect a keyboard or mouse to
the PCs in order for them to boot; in fact, the PCs will boot with only the Local
Hub or Switching Remote Unit connected.
This feature makes several other things possible:
• Your PCs can operate continuously regardless of whether or not the Remote or
Local Hub at the other end of the Extender link is powered, connected, or
even present.
• You can “hot-plug” or “hot-swap” the remote or local keyboards and mice at
any time; that is, you can unplug and replug the keyboards and mice without
disrupting the operation of the PCs.
• You can connect different CPUs to different Remotes at different times in
order to create a “switched” KVM-extension system. You can do this by moving
cable between patch-panel ports or directly between Units or Local Hub ports,
although you should do this as infrequently as possible to avoid wearing out
the connectors on your cable and devices. Or you can use a CAT5 switch, but
the switch must carry all eight wires (maintaining the twists between the wire
pairs) and must have enough bandwidth to support your system’s video
demands. Please call Black Box Technical Support to discuss your application
before installing such a system.
7.2 Normal Operation and Keyboard Typematic Rate
With the exception of the shared-access features of the Dual-Access model (see
Sections 7.3.3
and
7.3.4
), the Rackmount Extender should operate continuously
and transparently, maintaining the long-distance connection between the local
devices (CPU or KVM switches) and the remote user station or KVM switch. Note
that the remote keyboard’s typematic rate—the rate at which a held-down
character will repeat—is fixed at 30 characters per second, which is also the default
typematic value for Windows.
CHAPTER 7: Operation
