KVM and Dock?

vaderag

Established Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
692
Reaction score
78
Points
180
Since I'm now being made to work from home I'm trying to find something to aid me...

I have a desktop and a work laptop that I want to connect to the same Mouse, Keyboard and Monitor. I also need to power my laptop, connect to the monitor and ideally connect it to ethernet.

A KVM on its own would work for the first part, but the second part (ethernet and monitor over the same cable) would require a laptop dock to keep things tidy... is there such a thing that combines these two things?

Failing that, perhaps I'll just get a KVM and use Wifi - guess I'm not really missing out on much else...
 
Last edited:
how would your laptop connect to the dock ? We use USB C ones and ones that connection directly into a socket on the underside of the laptop and are hence specific to certain models of in our case HP.

something like this - I have never used this so I am not endorsing it but it seems to do what you want.



NOTE - read very carefully the small print if you buy a dock as what resolution it will do, can it charge a laptop etc etc the wording especially on cheaper brands, very is slippy , I have seen dock's listed that they support a 4K video signal that in fact do 2x1080p (dual screen) but not a single 4K display for example.
 
Last edited:
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
how would your laptop connect to the dock ? We use USB C ones and ones that connection directly into a socket on the underside of the laptop and are hence specific to certain models of in our case HP.

something like this - I have never used this so I am not endorsing it but it seems to do what you want.



NOTE - read very carefully the small print if you buy a dock as what resolution it will do, can it charge a laptop etc etc the wording especially on cheapre brands, very is slippy , I have seen doc's listed suporint 4K video signal that in fact do 2x1080p (dual screen) but not a single 4K display for example.


Thanks - yeah, i've noticed some of that slippy wording, hence coming here to look for info/recommendations!

I don't (yet) have 4k monitors so for the time being that should be fine, but might be good to future proof if I'm doing it

I have a HP Zbook G4 - doesnt seem like it has any special ports and looking at the official docks it seems it's USB C with Thunderbolt which carries everything
 
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
I ended up getting just a cheap usb c to hdmi, usb A and C dongle off Ali express, that runs one of my monitors then I got a ugreen KVM from there as well and plug that in to the usb A port on the dongle, all up probably cost me less than £15.

I do still need to plug some things in directly though, I could use a usb ethernet adapter in that but the software we use is so particular about the connection I had bad problems using those so just plug that calls in to the laptop directly. I also can't run a second monitor without another cable in to the laptop and I have no way to power it over usb c, but that's because I haven't got a charger that can handle it.

Its a bit of a mismatch of cables and adapters but I just poked them all out of sight and leave the cables I need hooked on the back of the monitor so it's actually really neat and isn't too much to set it up. The KVM was the most convenient but though, very worth the price I paid.
 
I ended up getting just a cheap usb c to hdmi, usb A and C dongle off Ali express, that runs one of my monitors then I got a ugreen KVM from there as well and plug that in to the usb A port on the dongle, all up probably cost me less than £15.

I do still need to plug some things in directly though, I could use a usb ethernet adapter in that but the software we use is so particular about the connection I had bad problems using those so just plug that calls in to the laptop directly. I also can't run a second monitor without another cable in to the laptop and I have no way to power it over usb c, but that's because I haven't got a charger that can handle it.

Its a bit of a mismatch of cables and adapters but I just poked them all out of sight and leave the cables I need hooked on the back of the monitor so it's actually really neat and isn't too much to set it up. The KVM was the most convenient but though, very worth the price I paid.

Can I ask which ugreen KVM you got? I'm thinking of getting their USB switch but am a little hesitant getting it from Aliexpress, but it's noticeably cheaper!
 
I got this one but only in usb 2 as I only needed it for keyboard and mouse really and wouldn't be using it for things like memory sticks out hard drives so the extra speed would be kind of wasted.


Works just fine for my needs but I do have another usb charging bank to power it properly. As I said for the rest of my set up I just have separate cables for monitor inputs and network. If I see a cheap usb C laptop charger I'll swap out the one works issued me to save plugging an extra thing in. But under lockdown they let me strip the office of my actual usb c dock and monitors so I'm using those at the moment as my partner needs our pc, it doesn't actually seem much neater though to be honest.
 
Thanks, that's the one i'm looking at. The USB 3.0 one is hiked up quite a lot on Amazon but i've never bought from Ali Express before
 
Thanks, that's the one i'm looking at. The USB 3.0 one is hiked up quite a lot on Amazon but i've never bought from Ali Express before
I think I've only had one item go missing and that was when covid kicked off. The only thing I have issues with from there is the plugs tends to be foreign with cheap adapters to use. So in this case you'll be fine as it doesn't come with a plug. Might just take a few weeks to turn up but if you aren't in a rush it's worth it for the savings.

I also use this to plug the whole thing in to my laptop over usb C.

 
Thanks i've ordered that one, hopefully it'll arrive before the lockdown is over!
Work gave me a usb-c hub so i'm good for that.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom