Techy Question - Cables/Panels

[Cajungaltx]

Okay - it's more in the mental planning stages right now - but here's the deal.

I work from home. My ubber desktop is in my office in the front of my house.

I have a 2.6 year old who must have eyes on her at all times.

The problem comes when I'm trying to work, and edit images/or just 'work' at my day job.

Prior to Brad's deployment - he would watch her for a couple hours so that I could work when he got home. That's not an option now, so I've got to get creative. I have a 12 year old, who can help - but honestly, it's MY 3 year old, not hers - and while she will do it - I don't want to create the 'parenting' dynamic for my 12 year old. She's a kid... I want her to be able to ACT like a kid... ;-)

My laptop is powerful enough to run LR/CS4 - one at a time probably - and honestly - it's a pain in the butt to transfer the files, etc. I could make them accessible via shared folders, but then I'm creating catalogs on my laptop - and I don't want to do that.

So my thoughts - based off of the KVM switch concept/patch panel idea - that instead of switching the pc that is being accessed, I'm switching the periphials that are accessing the PC. Without having to physically unplug everything.

Could I run cables - for a monitor/keyboard/mouse - as well as possibly an external dvd device - which could be connected to a panel that I installed in my kitchen/breakfast area - and next to my pc in my office area.

I'll start doing my own research - as far as what kinds of cables I'd need, etc - but thought I'd see if anyone here had any knowledge/ideas/etc.

Thanks!

[ggeen]

OR...you could just access the C$ share on your PC at home. It is only accessible with the administrator account so if you don't have that, then create a share at an appropriate location. Just about any device you can connect to your computer you can share out. Create the shares for HDD, CD, DVD drives on your desktop and then access them from your laptop over a wireless -- or wired -- network.

Keep it simple. Don't make life too complicated. Besides, creating shares is free. I know photographers like free.

[Rson]

Reminds me of that contest to take the longest time to make the simplest of things.

On your big computer you should be able to share everything. Printers, devices etc.

Do you have Win7? You create a homegroup and sharing is even simpler. If you want a central hub for files, look at this. You can use it as a intermediary.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822165156

And if stores as mirrored for data security through redundancy.

[drgibson]

Or you could just RDP into your Desktop from the laptop then you are working from the machine that already has everything you need on it.

[Cajungaltx]

Yes, I've got win 7 and I know how to share folders, etc.

I can share printers, etc - it's the memory/cpu/power of the desktop that I want access to in the other room, without having to drag the tower in there. ;-)

[ggeen]

I find RDP to be slow in graphics intensive activities. Then again, working from a share may be slow, too but it may be a good way to go since you would use the disk, memory, and CPU of the desktop and only the graphics card of the laptop.

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by drgibson

Or you could just RDP into your Desktop from the laptop then you are working from the machine that already has everything you need on it.

Don - I think I'll try this. ;) I use it for working at my day job - so it should probably work really well!

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by ggeen

I find RDP to be slow in graphics intensive activities. Then again, working from a share may be slow, too but it may be a good way to go since you would use the disk, memory, and CPU of the desktop and only the graphics card of the laptop.

Okay... maybe not... ;-)

The laptop has shared graphics - it isn't even fit to play World of Warcraft on...

[SpeedRacerSlots]

Not to mention that RDP doesnt render graphics worth a flip

[Cajungaltx]

Yeah - I know when I have to pull up a .pdf through remote - I want to kick my work IT guys just to make me feel better... ;-)

[tropicpine]

Sharing your C drive on your home network is a simple solution. I recomend against sharing your entire disk drive on any PC connected to the internet. (Any breach of you routher and you will be sharing your c drive with the whole internet.) Instead place your files in a diretory on you hard disk and share only that directory. (right click on directory and shelect sharing. Sharing is turned on be default. If sharing is greyed out let me know what OS you are running and I can help you turn on sharing.) (NOTE: If your PC is connected to the internet and file sharing is enabled, disable the C$ share.)

Remote controlling your desktop PC from your laptop (as per RDP mentioned above) is another idea that, while a little more difficult to implement, is also a solution to consider. With this solution your desktop does all the processing and storage while your laptop acts as a keybord, monitor and mouse at the end of a ethernet connection. One benifit , as the software remains installed on your desktop PC, there are no licenseing issues to consider. Another benifit is that you only need to configure and maintain one installation of software. Check out VNC . Its free and pretty good stuff. The down side will be that the color calibration you may have done on your desktop will probably not match up to the diplay on you laptop. The security risk here is that if someone gets thru your router/firewall, discovers you are running VNC, can hack your VNC passsword and can reconfigure your router they can then remote controll your PC too. (This is a much more remote possibility than getting at you shared root of your C drive.)

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by tropicpine

Sharing your C drive on your home network is a simple solution. I recomend against sharing your entire disk drive on any PC connected to the internet. (Any breach of you routher and you will be sharing your c drive with the whole internet.) Instead place your files in a diretory on you hard disk and share only that directory. (right click on directory and shelect sharing. Sharing is turned on be default. If sharing is greyed out let me know what OS you are running and I can help you turn on sharing.) (NOTE: If your PC is connected to the internet and file sharing is enabled, disable the C$ share.)

Remote controlling your desktop PC from your laptop (as per RDP mentioned above) is another idea that, while a little more difficult to implement, is also a solution to consider. With this solution your desktop does all the processing and storage while your laptop acts as a keybord, monitor and mouse at the end of a ethernet connection. One benifit , as the software remains installed on your desktop PC, there are no licenseing issues to consider. Another benifit is that you only need to configure and maintain one installation of software. Check out VNC . Its free and pretty good stuff. The down side will be that the color calibration you may have done on your desktop will probably not match up to the diplay on you laptop. The security risk here is that if someone gets thru your router/firewall, discovers you are running VNC, can hack your VNC passsword and can reconfigure your router they can then remote controll your PC too. (This is a much more remote possibility than getting at you shared root of your C drive.)

I'm familiar with VNC - we used it before we used RDP at work.

Will the laptop graphics limitations be an issue?

My router/firewall is secure - our friend David handles that for us, and I have to remember some whacked out access code to get on it... lol. My work recently switched me over to a VOIP phone, and you'd have thought David was going to have a baby cow at giving them access to 'screw things up'. He gave them a couple hours to get it working, then checked to make sure they hadn't left any ports opened. ;-)

[ggeen]

Just to be clear, C$ is already there. It is an administrative share accessible only by the Administrator account by default. This being the case, you are NOT ADDING a share you would be taking advantage of something that is already there.

[Coelus]

You could just wire your house with cameras to keep an eye on the little tyke.

That and your twelve year old will be a teenager before you know it. Keep some cameras on the windows ;)