I need to control my work laptop and home desktop using one mouse and one keyboard.

Danger781

I have a bit of an odd request - I was hoping somebody here might be in a similar situation. I use "Mouse without borders" in work to control my desktop and laptop which works flawlessly. However I work from home sometimes and this involves connecting to the work VPN on my work-supplied laptop so mouse without borders will not work - I think. When on the VPN my home desktop and work laptop are technically on different networks. Correct me if I'm wrong on this - I briefly tried but had no success. How can I control both my desktop and work laptop using my one keyboard and mouse? Is there physical alternative to mouse without borders?

I was thinking perhaps a remote desktop solution but that won't work either. When I remote desktop to the laptop then connect to the work VPN I am kicked out of the RDP session. VNC works but that is absolutely horrible to use. I do not want to connect my home desktop to the VPN because that defeats the purpose.

Any thoughts?

Lu Tze

Danger781 wrote: »

I have a bit of an odd request - I was hoping somebody here might be in a similar situation. I use "Mouse without borders" in work to control my desktop and laptop which works flawlessly. However I work from home sometimes and this involves connecting to the work VPN on my work-supplied laptop so mouse without borders will not work - I think. When on the VPN my home desktop and work laptop are technically on different networks. Correct me if I'm wrong on this - I briefly tried but had no success. How can I control both my desktop and work laptop using my one keyboard and mouse? Is there physical alternative to mouse without borders?

I was thinking perhaps a remote desktop solution but that won't work either. When I remote desktop to the laptop then connect to the work VPN I am kicked out of the RDP session. VNC works but that is absolutely horrible to use. I do not want to connect my home desktop to the VPN because that defeats the purpose.

Any thoughts?

KVM switch? I have my keyboard and mouse plugged into a USB hub, if I need to switch onto my desktop for a minute I just have to move the one cable from laptop to desktop. Have a USB extension cable mounted on the desk, so its easily accessible. If you are constantly switching back and forth this would become irritating however

Danger781

Lu Tze wrote: »

If you are constantly switching back and forth this would become irritating however

This would be it - I would be actively using both in an ideal world.

Danger781

Seems like the VPN does not allow local LAN access while connected. I am unable to ping my desktop and vice versa.

Lu Tze

Danger781 wrote: »

Seems like the VPN does not allow local LAN access while connected. I am unable to ping my desktop and vice versa.

KVM switches go from 10-15 euro if you don't mind using VGA.

Danger781

Lu Tze wrote: »

KVM switches go from 10-15 euro if you don't mind using VGA.

Dont think I'd need to use VGA at all. I have two monitors - One connected to laptop dock and one connected to desktop. It would really only be swapping KB+M control between the two.

However - My concern with using a KVM is that it would introduce additional input lag. This is by no means a big deal for work usage, but I would need to disconnect the KVM if I intended on playing some video games later on?

Minor inconveniences.. Mouse without borders would be ideal Or better yet remote desktop would work great as well. Shame the VPN seems to be configured to drop all LAN traffic.

degsie

You probably need to research 'split-tunneling'.

Lu Tze

Danger781 wrote: »

Dont think I'd need to use VGA at all. I have two monitors - One connected to laptop dock and one connected to desktop. It would really only be swapping KB+M control between the two.

However - My concern with using a KVM is that it would introduce additional input lag. This is by no means a big deal for work usage, but I would need to disconnect the KVM if I intended on playing some video games later on?

Minor inconveniences.. Mouse without borders would be ideal Or better yet remote desktop would work great as well. Shame the VPN seems to be configured to drop all LAN traffic.

Get a second keyboard and mouse!

Danger781

degsie wrote: »

You probably need to research 'split-tunneling'.

I can't configure the VPN client. It would need to be enabled on the VPN server unless I'm mistaken. I did notice in the IPv4 statistics section it states "Tunnel Mode (IPv4): Split Exclude". To me this reads as not allowing split tunneling.

degsie

Maybe play around with persistent static routes.

ED E

Adding a route for your LAN with a lower metric than the one your VPN client inserts may work depending on the client.

Danger781

degsie wrote: »

Maybe play around with persistent static routes.

ED E wrote: »

Adding a route for your LAN with a lower metric than the one your VPN client inserts may work depending on the client.

I have no idea what this means

I'll start researching this today when I get some down time.. Thanks!

Danger781

No idea what to do about those static routes. I understand what they are but I don't understand how it's going to help here. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it just manipulates the routing table. This doesn't address the fact that the VPN doesn't allow for split tunneling so all network data is going through the VPN? Am I misunderstanding something here?

On a side note - I've found a way to enable two IP addresses on my laptop by enabling wireless and wired connectivity at the same time. By typing ipconfig I see I have a .24 address for wired and .25 address for wireless. However as soon as I startup the Cisco AnyConnect client the second wireless IP address is removed. This is before connecting to the VPN - I geuinely mean just starting the client. From what I can gather having two IP addresses is the only way to allow LAN connectivity without split tunneling.

Cisco seems to take control of my adapters and only allows one connection..

Danger781

Danger781 wrote: »

Cisco seems to take control of my adapters and only allows one connection..

This is by design apparently. So I either need to find a way around that or look into a KVM / Second KB+M.

Adyx

I'm not sure if it's any help in your situation but you can get "reverse" USB hubs i.e connect one USB device to 2 computers. Would take the pain out of constantly reconnecting a keyboard and mouse.

ED E

Probably not applicable (work equipment) but you could run a VM for work, connect to the VPN within that, then the host OS would be able to share the KVM no problem.

dreamers75

If you could remote to either PC, you could then remote to the other computer but have it on a 2nd screen.

Possibly the easier option but the VPN may not allow that.

gingernut79

See if you can download a piece of software called symless. Keyboard and mouse sharing over your local network. I use it across 2 work PCs and though it has been flaky in the past, it is currently perfect. http://synergy-project.org

Danger781

ED E wrote: »

Probably not applicable (work equipment) but you could run a VM for work, connect to the VPN within that, then the host OS would be able to share the KVM no problem.

This is what I originally tried to do and would be absolutely ideal. However I was experiencing some authentication problems because I was unable to join the domain (Speaking to a colleague, it seems this may be possible..) and two, I was getting certificate errors. I believe I have found out how to get past the certificate errors so I'm hoping this may work after all...

dreamers75 wrote: »

If you could remote to either PC, you could then remote to the other computer but have it on a 2nd screen.

Possibly the easier option but the VPN may not allow that.

I wish it was that easy, but as you said the VPN doesn't allow it. Technically they are different networks so the laptop would not have an IP address in my local LAN. I tried to enable two adapters at once so the Wireless adapter could have a local IP address but the VPN client won't allow it.

gingernut79 wrote: »

See if you can download a piece of software called symless. Keyboard and mouse sharing over your local network. I use it across 2 work PCs and though it has been flaky in the past, it is currently perfect. http://synergy-project.org

This is the same thing as mouse without borders.

ED E

Danger781 wrote: »

This is what I originally tried to do and would be absolutely ideal. However I was experiencing some authentication problems because I was unable to join the domain (Speaking to a colleague, it seems this may be possible..) and two, I was getting certificate errors. I believe I have found out how to get past the certificate errors so I'm hoping this may work after all...

The company will use their own certs to perform transparent proxying, it should be a 5 minute job to extract the .crts and install them in your VM.

Joining the domain may be dependent on the orgs setup.

chewed

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but looking for some advice.

I have a desktop in my office and I also work from home using my work laptop. I have a nice HDMI monitor and wanted to know is there a KVM switch I can use so that I can easily switch from laptop to desktop without plugging in/out too many cables?

ED E

Search "HDMI KVM" on amazon.