New Gear: JetKVM is really very handy!

Late last year I supported the Kickstarter for JetKVM. This device is a tiny little IP-KVM solution. It’s basically a refined package of everything involved in a PiKVM. Connect HDMI & USB from a computer-to-be-controlled, and Ethernet. Then the web interface on the JetKVM device allows that device to be remote controlled using just a web browser from anywhere there’s IP connectivity.

I had actually forgotten that I supported the project until one day a pair the wee devices arrived. It happens that I’ve been meaning to work on a KVM solution for my home office.

There are two small servers (Blue Iris and Lyrion running on Lenovo Tiny PCs) that I really should have located in the network rack, where they’d be on the UPS.The trouble is that the rack does not have a keyboard or monitor. So, they were located elsewhere, and went down hard when power was lost.

Given JetKVM in the house, I immediately set one up for use with the Lyrion server. Setup took just a few minutes. It draws power from a USB connection to the host, or a separate power supply. It DHCP’d an IP address from my router, displaying that address in the little LCD screen. Thereafter I was able to login from my desktop.

At first login it prompted for the creation of a password, then let me connect. The screen from the Lyrion server showed up immediately. I had full control of the system from my desktop.

The web interface has a Connection Stats panel that displays packet loss, jitter and frame rate. This confirmed that JetKVM was passing 1080p60. Just for fun, I opened a browser on the server and played a YouTube clip. The video played smoothly via the KVM.

Later, I applied Windows updates to the Lyrion server. The USB port connected to the JetKVM device is continuously powered, so I was able to reboot or even power-off the server, without losing control. When rebooting, the POST display is passed via the KVM. I could watch the whole boot process remotely.

The web interface can even send a Wake-on-LAN message to turn on a server that’s been powered off. That is, if the connected device is setup for Wake-on-LAN.

All the above was done using local network access. Logging into the JetKVM Cloud using my Google account, I was able to add my JetKVM device, making it accessible from outside my network. Not that I’ll ever need to access my music server from afar.

I can certainly imagine other devices that might benefit from truly remote access. That said, JetKVM is not really suitable to use with our primary desktops. It only accommodates 1080p60 video where our desktop PCs run a 4K workspace.

While on the project web site I noted that they have a Discord server. As a Discord user myself, I dropped by there to see what was going on. It was glad that I did, since I discovered they were seeking beta testers for a new, PoE capable variant of the device. As we make great use of PoE hereabouts, I added my name to the list.

So far, Jet KVM does everything I might have hoped. At around $70 each, JetKVM is less expensive than the collection of items necessary to provide equivalent functionality using PiKVM. It’s also cheaper than everything I’d need to buy to implement a physical, rack mount KVM solution in my rack.