All for One, One Keyboard for All

Does your workspace involve managing more than one computer or perhaps you have a media center that does not have a dedicated keyboard?  Would it not be great if you had one keyboard and mouse to use for all your computers? The answer is Synergy. Synergy allows you to share a keyboard and mouse among multiple computers on the same network. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="454" caption="visualization from Synergy website"][/caption]

The process involves setting up a host which is the computer that physically has the keyboard/mouse attached.  To do so, you FIRST  have to specify the group of computers that will be involved.

IMPORTANT: the names of the computers on the list should match the names under the Windows computer system properties.

In my setup, Rudy-PC is the computer's monitor on the right and simon-PC is the computer that will be the host. You have to include the reflection. If Rudy-PC is right of simon-PC than, simon-PC is left of Rudy-PC!

Next, install Synergy on all the computers that will be using the keyboard. In this case, use the "use another computer's keyboard and mouse" option, verify the computer's name and you should be done with the setup process! Finally, go back to your host computer, either test your configuration, start the server or set it to autostart and you should be done. Once  started, you should see this on your guest computer's once you start the connection to the host.

You can get creative how you use Synergy; multiple hosts, using the laptop as host to create a sudo wireless keyboard, etc.