Trendnet TK-205K 2 Port PS/2 KVM Switch

As a Computer Repair Specialist for a medium size manufacturing company I am often having to share my desk space with my working PC and a second computer that I am repairing or setting up one for deployment in our plant. Because I am limited on space, I don’t have a whole lot of room to place two monitors, keyboards and mice for both computers.

My boss found a solution to my problem; a 2 port KVM switch. Now you are probably wondering what a KVM switch is, quite simply it is a device that allows you to share a single SVGA monitor, keyboard and mouse between two or more computers, depending on how many ports the switch has. The switch I will be reviewing today has two ports and you can purchase these KVM switches that have many more ports. The switch my boss picked up is the Trendnet TK-205K 2port PS/2 KVM switch.

Trendnet TK-250K 2port PS/2 KVM switch

I opened the box and pulled out all of the contents; the KVM switch, two cables (4ft. in length) and user guide. The setup was very simple and didn’t require me to load any drivers. The hardest part was getting all of the cables and computers situated right so everything fit. The reason this was a problem was the cables that connected to each of the computers were very short and that meant I had to move things around so I could hook up the monitor, keyboard and mouse to the switch and still be able to hook up both computers.

The device is very small and compact and because it is mostly plastic it is very lightweight. It has two 15 pin SVGA connectors coming out of the back and they are labeled PC1 and PC2. There is another SVGA connector on the left hand side and it is labeled with a little monitor symbol and it is also a 15 pin SVGA connector.

Setup

The way the switch works, you hook up the SVGA cable from the monitor into the side of switch and the keyboard and mouse plug into the front of the switch. The connectors are color coded and there is also two small symbols painted on the switch just above each of the connectors so you won’t plug them in incorrectly. The connector for SVGA cable also has a little symbol painted on the case just above the connector. After connecting the monitor, keyboard and mouse to the switch then you take one of the cables that were included in the box and plug it into the connector on the back of the switch box labeled PC1 and take the other end of the cable and hook up the big blue plug onto the connector on the back of your computer. Then you take the smaller plugs which are color coded and hook them up to mouse (green) and keyboard (purple) connectors on the back of your computer. Once you have completed the first hook up of the first computer, all you have to do is repeat the same sequence for the second computer except that instead of using the PC1 connector on the back of the switch box you would use the PC2 connector.

The switch is not self powered; instead it uses the power supplied from the cables coming from each computer. There are two indicator lights on top of the device that let you know that you have running computers attached to the switch. If you only have one running computer the corresponding light will be green and the other one will be red. Right next to each of the indicator is a button and with these buttons is how you switch back and forth between the two computers. There is one other indicator on top of the switch and it indicates that there is power to the switch. The indicator simply says “KVM Switch” in red LED’s.

My final thoughts

After pulling the contents out of the package I was a little bit concerned when I saw that the cables that will be running between the PC’s and the switch box were so short. The last KVM switch that I had came with attached cables that were 8 feet long and with these being only 4 feet long, but for now it really isn’t an issue.

But, after situating my two towers where I needed them, I found that the cables all fit perfectly with a little bit to spare. I really like the fact that the buttons are right on top and well labeled, it makes it a snap to switch back and forth between the two computers. Trendnet also included key combination for switching between the two computers if you don’t want to use the buttons. All you have to do is hit the scroll lock key twice and then hit the 1 or 2 button to select which computer you want to use. The instructions for this are plainly written in the user guide included in the box and they are written in five different languages; English, French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch.

A very nice feature of this KVM switch is that it has support for high resolution video, my last KVM switch didn’t have support for my 21” Gateway monitor and it was very disappointing. The Trendnet TK-205K 2-port PS/2 KVM switch has support for up to 2048 x 1536, which is perfect for my big monitor. It also fully supports Windows OS from DOS up to Windows XP, Netware, Unix, Linux and more.

I would definitely recommend this KVM switch for anyone that finds themselves needing to share a monitor, keyboard and mouse with two different computers.