Customer Reviews

2 PC to 1 USB 2.0 Device AB Switch Box (Printer, Scanner)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Have two computers, wanted to share a printer. Went to the Giant Electronic Store, the prices were out of sight, you would think I wanted to launch two rockets, so much hardware and instructions. Went on Amazon, ran across this plastic item 4 inches high 1-1/2 wide at a really low price. To make a long story short, ordered it, installed, and WOW, it worked like a charm, you won't be sorry.

I use this switch box to connect one keyboard and mouse to 2 different PCs. It works fantastic, but has one drawback. The unit is made of lightweight plastic and is approx 4 1/2 inches tall and 1 inch wide. That makes it very unstable, especially when cables are connected to the back. It's hard to get it to stand up on your desktop because the weight of the cables tend to make it fall over. And when you press the buttons on the front it just wants to slide backwards. I had to use a hot-glue gun to attach a non-skid pad to the base in order to make it stand upright. When I want to switch from one PC to the other I press down on the top with my index finger and push the button with my thumb. That keeps it from falling over or sliding backwards on the desktop. But the switching mechanism does work great, so it's worth the bother!

I needed to hook two computers sitting side by side that are on different networks (that cannot be connected for security reasons) to one printer for space reasons. Solved my problem. The only thing is I sometimes forget to press the switch before requesting a scan or sending a print job. That is user error - but the switch works everytime. I also keep expecting some sort of Windows error to ocurr when switching a computer on/off to the printer connection. One machine is XP, the other Vista. Neither machine has rebelled as far as the USB connection is concerned (fingers crossed!).

I wanted to connect two computers to one printer and this does the job perfectly. You need a total of three USB printer cables, one from each computer to the device and one to the printer. You need to wait a few seconds when switching, and don't press print unless you are on that computer, but if you follow those simple rules it works like a charm.

I got this so I could share a wireless keyboard and mouse hooked up to a Media center TV. I switch between computers that are displaying on the TV and I didn't want to have to run over and unplug everything.

I ordered two 15 foot long USB cables (this does NOT come with cables, but if you've bought enough devices, you are sure to have some kind of cable lying around) and attached them to both computers. Initially I was worried that you could only share one USB device but there's really no reason you can't - I used a small unpowered hub with it and was able to share both the keyboard and mouse. The switch works fine!

Setup time 5 minutes. Worked perfectly right out of the box. Hardest part was getting the product out of the plastic blister packaging. NOTE: Be sure that the cables are inserted into the ports all the way, or it will not work.

I bought this because I have 2 PCs to 1 wireless mouse/kb combination. I can toggle between both PCs fine. It seems to hang up the older laptop after many changes, but unplugging and plugging it back it fixes it. Between this setup and a display with a vga and a sdmi input, all it takes to go from one to the other is a button on this switch and one on my monitor. So convienient.

If u r like me u hate having to mess with computer network settings and using new software to make your pc accessories work. I have 2 pcs that use 1 printer. I simply installed my printer driver on both pcs, plugged both printer cables from my pcs to this switch box, a cable from swi box to printer, and it's DONE! One pc uses button "A" and the other uses button "B". U can switch on the fly. Super easy and very basic. Great for someone who wants to do this the simplistic way and not spend so much money.

I use this for switching input devices between my target-display-mode capable iMac and a Windows machine with a displayport video card. Works great. The box is very light, so instead of using the included stand (which slides off of the switchbox) I attached it to my keyboard tray using velcro.

I ordered this after I couldn't find one locally. It was easy to hook up and works great.