Iogear users can simultaneously share a PC

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By Tom Spring

(IDG) -- Siblings used to fight over which cartoon to watch on TV; now they bicker over what to do on the family PC. Iogear is offering to bridge the family divide with a tool that enables the elementary idea of sharing the PC.

Consumers don't need to fork over $1,000 for a second computer system, but could opt instead for Iogear's latest version of ShareView, which allows a second monitor, keyboard, and mouse to be attached to a PC. This lets Junior surf the Web and Mom balance the virtual checkbook on a single system without each getting in the other's way.

ShareView costs $199 and consists of a PC Card, a keyboard, and a 15-foot bonded USB and VGA monitor cable for the second workstation. You supply the second monitor and mouse. ShareView's update, released in June, supports Windows ME and has improved USB and hardware compatibility, the company says. A 50-foot Iogear USB/monitor cable costs an additional $59.

Give your PC a split personality

The software uses Microsoft Windows' capability to manage different user profiles to create a second, completely independent desktop accessible simultaneously on the same PC.

The included PC Card, which plugs into the host system's ISA slot, is a low-end 4MB VGA Silicon Integrated Systems video card. A second monitor plugs into the Iogear card, and the second keyboard plugs into the PC's free USB port. The mouse plugs into a P/S2 mouse port on the bundled keyboard.

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The heavy lifting takes place within the ShareView software, which mimics a low-end second PC. The more robust the host system, the better the second PC's performance; the host computer's memory and processor are shared and reallocated on the fly as needed.

"This is a great solution for sharing applications that are not power intensive," says Marshall Willis, company spokesperson.

The minimum system requirement for creating a two-user PC via ShareView is a 330-MHz Celeron system with 64MB of memory. A 1GHz-class system with 128MB memory can handle as many as four users, but that feat would require three copies of ShareView.

Stop hogging the bandwidth, Billy

The secondary PC has full access to all software applications and hardware peripherals on the host PC. That allows users to share one licensed copy of, for example, Windows XP among multiple users simultaneously. Willis says since software is installed on only one PC, the multiple use doesn't break single-PC licensing agreements.

The user of a host PC can share an Internet connection and set up separate e-mail accounts. Application folders are accessible to all users, but Windows folders that are managed through profiles are kept private to the designated user.

The software does not support the true PC networking that is becoming popular among players of multiplayer games that run on home networks. However, ShareView offers a single communal Windows Folder for sharing live files. And users can also zap messages back and forth using the proprietary instant messaging application bundled with ShareView.

Early versions of Iogear have had compatibility issues with some PC brands, Willis acknowledges. To determine system compatibility, check out the troubleshooting section of Iogear's Web site.