This is Frank’s submission for the HP Magic Giveaway. Feel free to leave comments for this article as you see fit – your feedback is certainly welcomed! If you’d like to submit your own how-to, what-is, or top-five list, you can send it to me. Views and opinions of this writer are not necessarily my own:

I have 2 computers at my house that I use. I wanted a program that would enable me to use my keyboard and mouse from my desktop, to work on my laptop as well. I figured an application like this would definitely increase my productivity and make it easier from switching between computers. I know a lot of people out there who have multiple computers in there home or office would love that chance to have something that will free them from using more than one keyboard and mouse. Not only does using more than one of these devices become cluttered, but it slows down your efficiency to get work done. That’s why there’s an application called Synergy. Synergy allows you to share a keyboard and mouse from a host computer to multiple client computers. You need to download the program for both the host and client computers that you wish to use this feature on, but let me tell you… it is worth the time to download!

The setup is very easy to do and will work in a matter of seconds after installation. Although, to make sure connections from the host to client computers work, you have to configure the program so that it knows which is which. This can all be done using the easy to use interface that Synergy brings. In the beginning, Synergy gave me problems because I didn’t connect properly to the host computer from the client computer. The one major tip I can give that cleared this problem up is when you have the application on the client computer opened, make sure that you choose it as the “client” and you enter the host computers IP address in the box right below it.
Having the opportunity to be able to move my mouse from my host computer directly over to my laptop (client) and then use the keyboard as well has been a pleasant experience for me and is definitely one of my favorite applications to use!

Well, that’s my “What is” article on the program Synergy and how it has been a huge help with increasing my productivity.

By the way…this is open source cross platform software!!

What is Synergy?