Although Teleport has been serving my mouse and keyboard sharing needs wonderfully for my networked Macs, I’ve been bothered lately that I have no remote control over my PC.
The solution to this problem is Synergy, which lets you share a “server” keyboard and mouse between several “client” Macs and PCs on your network. I’ve tried installing and setting up Synergy years ago, but for some reason, it never worked and I gave up.
Now-a-days there are tons of guides for setting up Synergy. I found a posting on Scott Vandehey’s blog with a great little guide to get Synergy installed and setup, including links for downloading the software.
Not sure if it was Scott’s guide, Synergy updates, my local network, or what, but unlike a few years back, it worked almost effortlessly.
Notes/Additions to Scott’s Guide
– I entered a “screen alias” for each computer — where Scott says just do it for the PC(s).
– I used static IPs to identify each computer (which will need to be setup if you don’t already have in place).
– I get a “Warning: Could not map hotkey” when starting up synergy, but seems to be no problem — this happens even if you don’t remap “control” and “command” as Scott suggests.
– Here’s a look at my server configuration (“server” in the middle):
** Synergy bonus feature: PC & Mac screen saver syncronization! 🙂
