I Still Dislike My Home Work Setup (and I don't know what to do about it) | Hacker News Reader

I Still Dislike My Home Work Setup (and I don't know what to do about it)

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1 pointEyas6 comments

Suggestions:

- KVMs usually are expensive and terrible; switch at the destination instead. For example, Dell's UP2716D has 4 inputs (2 HDMI, 2 DP). Dell's other professional grade monitors have similar numbers of inputs. The downside is that switching inputs is mildly awkward using the monitor controls but the inconvenience is relatively minor.

- As for wireless audio, physically wire up your audio sources to a 3.5mm audio switch or even a tiny mixer (search for "mini audio mixer" on Amazon) and connect it to a Bluetooth transmitter. Pair your headphones with the transmitter.

If you use the monitor for switching video sources and can configure your machines to output audio over HDMI/DP, then the BT transmitter can be connected directly to the monitor's soundbar output, saving you some wiring.

- That leaves you with needing to switch your USB devices but switch boxes for USB are plentiful and cheap.

How do these work? Is it like going to the tiny settings menu and swapping the source on a monitor? I know the HDMI standard includes a way for an input to "request" a source to switch to it, are monitors with multiple inputs smarter about that sort of thing?

Yes, go to the monitor's settings menu and swap the source. Takes only a couple of seconds with practice at least for the Dell models that I use. Their UI has switching source as a top level option, probably because of the large number of inputs they have. You can check the user manual for the monitor to verify the complexity before purchasing.

Maybe try https://github.com/debauchee/barrier instead of a KVM?

My work device is a Chromebook unfortunately and the policy on installing some of this stuff on it (e.g. also Mouses without Borders) is no good.

Maybe part of the reason this problem is less common than I'd imagine is because companies are not typically as strict on what you install on your work machine? My last job certainly was.

I was using https://symless.com/synergy for same case. Ups, Just popped your comment about security policy.

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