Belkin makes a switch, ~$100 sometimes locally, that lets you swap one
{Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse} between 6 different computers.

The best price I've seen for it new was in one of those flyers, about
$250, a local store may have one though for the $100ish numbers.

Shift-Ctrl-Alt-1 to pick machine 1, ..6 to pick #6, and they're
cascadable.  Watch for ground loops, of course;  Power these machines
off the same UPS/power strip for best luck.

Cybex makes another switch, $100ish for 2-port, $150ish for 4-port?
Aah, shopper.cnet.com has that line.  For all such machines, see
http://shopper.cnet.com/shopping/0-11738-301-0-0.html?tag=st.cn.11738-ron.bc.gp,
I guess LinkSys makes these as well.

ComputerGate sells such a beastie, as well, ATen Tech.

Of course, if you can afford M$ $oftware, you can afford to buy this
thing new, and gold-plate it <G>  (Inside joke, sorry folks.  Well, not
very sorry <G>)

Also, analog switches could be used "in a pinch" to switch video (Yes,
for only up to 1024x768 or so, not for some custom 2k x 1k ultra VGA
card <G>)

If all you want is to just swap the VGA signal, ComputerGate (among
others) has a cheap box that does that, Black Box makes some that're $15
locally all the time ("just add cables"), ComputerGate asks $8 for the
2-port and $9 for the 4-way unit.  If you go this way, do yourself a
favor, either:
(a)  Just switch monitors, don't switch the keyboard;  or,
(b)  Power the keyboard off a separate power lump so it doesn't go
brain-dead, snip the Vcc wires inside the switch;  or,
(c)  Power the keyboard off the Vcc wires inside the switch, using a
couple Schottky's and a Cap inside the box, so the keyboard doesn't go
brain-dead.

Only problem with (a) is when (not if!) you start typing on the wrong
keyboard, when on a different machine than you thought you were on;
That's why I like the Keyboard-Video-Mouse switch.  Use a large-ish cap
if you go with (c).

Never seen a video card like that, no, to answer that part <G>

  Mark

piclist.com wrote:
>
> Any recomendations on a monitor switch? My machine closet has room for only
> one monitor and now I have a new MS machine and I'm starting to work on
> making the old one a Linux server. I'm going to wear this connector out
> soon.
>
> Is there a video card with an AUX input that will let you switch to another
> machines output and back to the localy generated signal on hot key or
> something?
>
> James Newton
> mailto:jamesnewton@geocities.com
> 1-619-652-0593 phone
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mark Willis <mwillis@FOXINTERNET.NET>
> To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, December 30, 1999 10:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [OT] Old Computers
>
> > You can use a monitor sharing device, if you want, that's fair <G>
> >
> >   Mark
> >

--
I re-ship for small US & overseas businesses, world-wide.
(For private individuals at cost; ask.)