Good Long Range Wireless Keyboard/Mouse Solution

[greymalkin]

Hello All,

I've been asked to look into a good solution for a poorly designed computer setup. 3 PC's were set up in a room with a looong (approx. 25') table. All three PC's were placed under the desk in a cubbyhole at the center of the desk, but the monitors were set up on monitor arms that extend from the ceiling, one over the center of the desk and the other 2 on the far left and right. A single channel at one end of the table was built to run the video cables from the desk into the ceiling and down through the monitor arms.

Since the computers are all bundled in the middle of the desk but the monitors are spread out across the desk they wanted wireless keyboards/mice to be directly under each monitor. They do not, however, want the wireless receivers to be popped up through a hole in the desk. The desk has a glass top on it and the current wireless keyboards/mice are not performing very well. The keyboards do OK but the mice are not responding well at all (and yes we're putting them on a mousepad so as not to be tracking on a shiny surface).

My question is...does anyone have any real world experience with a good wireless keyboard/mouse bundle that will be able to easily travel a distance of about 20' THROUGH A wood/metal DESK (ie not direct line of sight) and still give good performance?

If you need any more details please let me know. And thanks for looking!

[rallynavvie]

We have a SmartBoard (interactive whiteboard) at work where the master PC running the display is through a wall in a network closet directly behind the board. We use a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo in the room and it seems to work OK for controlling demos and presentations even from the far side of the room (easily greater than 25'). Not sure if your metal desk will put up more resistance than the wall though. We don't use mousepads, the optical mouse in the combo seems to do OK on the fake wood table even with the glossy surface. It's a Logitech combo, but not sure if it was one of their "darkfield" mice (that can work on highly-reflective surfaces).

As a dummy test maybe find a BT peripheral and test with a host. For instance pair your phone with a BT headset, start a call to a test buddy, then drop your phone into the cabinet where the PC will be and see if you can carry on a quality conversation about the room.

[artistmode]

HP wireless elite v2 http://reviews.bestbuy.com/3545/2945413/hp-elite-v2-wireless-keyboard-reviews/reviews.htm This keyboard is sweet and I paid $15. It has its own tiny usb connector. My PC is 8 years old and in two months it has never disconnected.

[redwudz]

I can't speak too much about keyboards. I have a BTC wireless KB that's good for about 30 feet. But that's been the exception of the ones I've tried. Most are lucky to make it ten feet. And that model isn't available any longer. I suspicion, that because of possible interference, the power on KBs and mouses has been greatly restricted in the last couple of years. I have four or five models of Logitech mouses and they are stable out to about three feet. Much beyond that, very unstable.

I haven't tried any Bluetooth KBs and mouses, but they may be a better option. But I would try out a few in a store before committing to a particular model.