KVM? how 2 control 1 iMac from 2 places

Hello,

I have been researching how i might do this, and am having trouble finding the right product. any help would be fantastic.

My wife has an iMac 24" purchased in 2010 and she would like to have it in her office. she would also like to have a monitor keyboard and mouse located out by the kitchen (50' away) that connects and controls that same iMac. DVI and usb are what I need I think, (spare monitor has DVI, Dsub, RGB connections, and an integrated USB hub so single usb and DVI would let me hook up a USB mouse and keyboard I think)

I have done this with a PC before but they have been close enough to use long cables and a KVM extender/switcher.

I would rather keep the price tag under $350 (otherwise I may suggest she get another Mac of some-sort and use some form of shared storage for both). I have seen some that use cat5 cable witch would be much easier to run.

googling it gets me too many different products and unsure if they are doing what I need. any links or suggestions would be great.

Thanks

I'm not sure this response will be exactly what you had in mind, but it should do what you want. Get a good used MacMini, and install VNC on it to VNC over to the iMac. I would think a G4 Mini would be more than sufficient to do what you want. (and then networking... whether cabled or wireless....)

If you don't like that plan, I still don't know if a KVM would be exactly what you're wanting, but then again my only exposure with that has been using a single set of devices (Keyboard, mouse, and display....) to be able to interface to multiple CPUs. I've never done it the other way around, like you're wanting to. I'm sure the USB + video repeaters like you mentioned would take care of it, but I don't know which way is *THE* way to go on this...

hope that helps, a little....

Welcome to Mac-Forums
If you have a smart phone (i'm thinking iphone or android phone or even an ipod touch) you could also use vnc viewer on them with vnc server installed on the mac.

- Simon

Thankyou for your suggestions. I am not sure either will work though. I am looking for her to use the computer as normal through a cloned display and a second set of mouse and keyboard.

I have done it with a PC before.

Literally used the the one computer in the one room and ran a KVM extender so I could put a second monitor, keyboard and mouse in another room next door and use the computer from either room. obviously only one "station" could be used at a time but it worked well otherwise

small screen of a phone is no good but maybe the mac mini idea would work assuming it can hook to a 24" monitor..

I was gonna suggest using an iPad to control the other computer but unless you catch a deal that's a bit out of the budget. I thought I had seen some extenders though that use Cat 5 Ethernet wire to make the connection. I'll let you know.

Update: The initial devices that I saw extended VGA signals and the older keyboard and mouse connections. I wonder if the following two devices couldn't kludge together a working solution assuming you are willing to run Ethernet cable.

| USB 2.0 Extenders
and either HDMI | Video Extenders or DVI| Video Extenders.

This is kind of a kludge and neither of these devices mentions Mac functionality so I would give them a call first. They are pretty good about answering questions and suggesting alternatives.