Due to the recent Covid-19 pandemic, many jobs have made the shift to working from home. And as many made the transition it became increasingly harder to merge between the number of devices at home. Often, working from home includes the need for a personal computer, laptop, keyboard, and other devices. In this post, we explore the simpler ways to switch between two computers.

What is a Docking Station?

A device that lets users connect any electronic device such as computers, laptops, and mobile phones to one another. Docking stations acts as a hub that connects one or more of your displays to a wired network. It also allows you to keep USB devices such as keyboards attached.

How to Use

Step 1

To begin use, you need to purchase both a docking station as well as a sharing switch.

Proceed then to connect all of your external display devices (such as laptops and personal computers) to the sharing switch using the provided cables.

You can skip the docking station if you don’t want to switch between monitors (e.g. if you only need to jump between computers and use the same wireless mouse, keyboard, mic, and other USB accessories).

Step 2

The next task would be to connect the sharing switch to the docking station. If you are not using a docking station, you will be connecting each computer to the switch.

Step 3

After the previous steps are complete, you will see the docking station working through the switch as a single device. To switch between any display hardware, simply click the button on the sharing switch.

The Best Options for Docking Stations

The following are the best, reasonably priced options in the market where we found the reviews to be extensive and consistently high (across marketplaces like Amazon).

Plugable Sharing Switch

Much like the description above, the Plugable sharing switch provides users with easy access to switch between any device connected through this switch. Initially only available in the US, these are the best-reviewed switches on Amazon and are now available in other countries (e.g. Amazon Australia).

StarTech Dual Monitor KVM Docking Station 

This device has a KVM switch connected to its docking device. A KVM switch acts as a sharing switch in many ways but has enough ports to connect more external devices. They are more commonly found in docking stations.

The StarTech Dual KVM device lets users connect to both Mac and Windows devices making it highly efficient for a home workspace. While this is more expensive than the earlier Plugable option, it is a bit more versatile and has a solid build.

The Inconvenient Post shares tech recommendations like this on occasion through extensive research. We did one on best value wireless earbuds recently, you can read it here.