Server management specialist Avocent recently released a breakthrough product to extend the useful life of ageing keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) kit.

The Avocent SwitchView IP adds browser-based access to KVM switches that do not have that functionality built-in, and includes improved data compression algorithms to make the best use of the available bandwidth on slow networks.

Given the extremely high cost of KVM switches and their associated cabling, firms without KVM-over-IP capabilities should evaluate the SwitchView IP.

In IT Week Labs tests the SwitchView IP was extremely quick and easy to install. We tested it with our legacy KVM controller, a Cybex Magnum Commander, bought in 1996, several years before KVM vendors started selling web-based products.

Connecting the SwitchView IP to our Cybex unit took less than five minutes. First we needed to disconnect the KVM devices from the Cybex unit and connect them to the SwitchView IP. Then we used the multi-purpose cable supplied by Avocent to link the KVM devices from the SwitchView to the Cybex Commander. We completed the hardware installation by connecting the SwitchView IP to our LAN.

In our tests we found the product rather more firewall-friendly than some others we have seen. Specifically, some KVM-over-IP products require a collection of TCP and UDP ports to be opened to traffic, which most IT managers would find unacceptable.

In contrast, SwitchView IP requires that TCP ports 80 and 5900 are open at the firewall in order to use the KVM-over-IP functionality from the internet. Other ports would need to be opened to remotely manage the SwitchView IP unit if that capability is also required.

With the IP connectivity established, accessing the unit was simple. However, we were disappointed to see that the SwitchView IP only works with Internet Explorer version 6.x. Controlling the KVM system from the web-based environment is done using a menu that sends special sequences of key-presses to the KVM unit. For example, there is an option for sending the popular ctrl-alt-del combination.

The SwitchView IP comes with 13 such key combinations, but users cannot add their own. We found some keystrokes required by our Magnum were impossible to generate from the web-based interface.Web connections can be configured to use 128bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption to improve security, and the unit has several compression algorithms to improve performance over links of various speeds.

Price: $995 (£550) + VAT

Contact: 01344 668 049