Here's what it says about the OmniView SE 4-Port KVM Switch on Belkin's website:

Like a humming bird you flutter from one computer to another. Monitoring each system, you sit only momentarily, then arises again only to reseat yourself at another computer. With the Belkin OmniView™ you can switch from one computer to another using only the tip of your finger.
Control four computers with one keyboard, mouse, and monitor at the push of a button. The 4-port OmniView™ SE can easily be expanded for control over as many as 16 computers by daisy-chaining ports.

• Manage four computers with one keyboard, PS/2 mouse, and monitor.
• Serial mouse conversion for connecting PCs with PS/2 or serial ports from one PS/2 mouse.
• Guaranteed security with a one-year warranty.
• Press the “Hot” key to quickly change between computers.

• Compatible and certified with Windows® 95, 98, 2000, Windows® NT, Novell® Netware, TurboLinux and all Linux® distributions.
• PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse connectors.
• HDDB15 VGA connectors to PCs and monitors.
• Compatible and certified with Windows® 95, 98, 2000, Windows® NT, Novell® Netware 5, TurboLinux and all Linux® distributions.
• resolution, 1600 x 1200 at 65-hz.
• Fully supports the Microsoft IntelliMouse® and IntelliMouse® Pro.
• Total keyboard (up to code-level 3 for Unix®/Linux® systems) and mouse emulation; you’ll never know the difference.
• Separate 19" rack mounting kit available.

One important spec to note is that Belkin claims that this product will support video resolutions of up to 1600x1200 @ 65Hz, which is plenty for most users, but how clear the images will be at that resolution, we'll have to find out as it's very hard to maintain such a clear signal from the video card to monitor when going through something like a computer switch. The Pro Series OmniView PS/2 High-Integrity Cable Kit that we received with the switch can help in this situation.

First Impressions
Included in the box was a manual, a copy of TurboLinux Server 6.0 Lite (more evidence that Belkin targets this product for network administrators) and the KVM switch itself. The manual is of decent length and goes quite in-depth into how to install and use the switch, including explanations on how to use the hotkey feature of the product, which I'll talk about later. For most of the second half, however, the manual talks about how to daisy chain multiple OmniView products together-important, but I don't feel that Belkin should've taken more than half of the manual to explain it. Maybe if they placed the instructions for daisy chaining multiple OmniViews in a separate manual...

The actual switch itself was surprisingly quite heavy and built on an obviously solid construction. On the back is a wealth of VGA, PS/2 and serial connectors and, luckily, all of them were nicely labeled so you don't plug things in the wrong place. Two rows of 4 LED's each at the front shows which "channel" (or port) and which "bank" (or daisy chained OmniView device) is currently active and two buttons at the front labeled "channel" and "bank/scan" allows the user to switch between channels and banks.

One important feature to note is that there are serial connectors in all ports, including the port for where the keyboard, mouse and monitor are directly connected to the switch. Here's where the micro-chip in the KVM switch starts to come in. The OmniView SE uses this micro-chip to conduct what Belkin calls a "serial conversion." This feature allows users to, for example, use a PS/2 mouse even when some of the computers are connected to the mouse port using their serial ports. This is an excellent feature that adds a new level of flexibility to the product.

I must also comment on the high-integrity cable kits that I received from Belkin as they were obviously made with quality in mind. These 6' cables are heavy and are extremely sturdy-a sure sign of quality that ensures the best video signal output possible-and had gold-plated connectors for maximum conductivity.

Powering Up...
Installation of the OmniView SE was a snap. I simply powered down all my computers, plugged in the thick and heavy cable kits into the ports at the back of the switch and into the back of my computers and powered them back up. Unfortunately, I did run into some minor annoyances during the installation process mostly in the fault of the cable kits. There are 2 PS/2 connectors for each end of the cable kits and each one is of slight different color than the other, in fact, a little too slight of difference between the two. Sometimes, when under low light such as when underneath a computer desk, it was very hard to tell the difference between the two connectors and so one would get confused as to which goes into which PS/2 port. The other annoyance is that for some reason, the PS/2 connectors on the cable kit were quite loose and I would have to jam them into the port at the back of the computer for them to stay in.

After powering up my main computer, I immediately noticed a huge difference in terms of the amount of ghosting on the screen when compared to the mechanical switchbox that I had been using before. I run my 19" Optiquest Q95 monitor usually at 1152x864 screen resolution and, after switching through some different resolutions all the way up to 1600x1200, the image quality remained crisp and clear, although I did notice some very minimal ghosting at all the resolutions that I tried.

I then tried switching between the different computers plugged into the switch using the channel button and, sure enough, I was directed to each computer's desktop with each press of the button. One complaint here, though, as I had to wait a second between each press of the channel button to be switched to the other channel.

The mouse also continued to function properly after each switch of the channel, although during some occurrences, it would stop working, but after switching off and back onto the channel, the mouse would work once again. All buttons and the scroll wheel on the mouse functioned just as if it was directly plugged into the computer. I was also very impressed that this switch could handle my mouse and keyboard as well as it does, as they both are cordless products (Logitech iTouch Cordless Desktop). The occurrences that the mouse didn't function that were mentioned above might be credited to the cordless attribute of my mouse.

The other very nice feature of this product is its hotkey feature. Instead of reaching for the channel button on the switch itself, one can switch between different channels by simply pressing twice on the keyboard's Scroll Lock key and then either the up or down keys. You can also have the switch automatically switch between the different computers after a specified amount of time (7 seconds is the default) by pressing twice on the Scroll Lock key and then the number 0 on the keyboard. The specified amount of time can be changed by a set of dip switches at the back of the switch and is briefly explained in the manual.

On to: Conclusion