Multiplicity 2.0 is currently in BETA and you're invited to try it!

Thursday, July 19, 2012 by Island Dog | Discussion: WinCustomize News

Multiplicity gives you the ability to control and quickly switch between multiple computers with one keyboard and mouse, reducing complexity and freeing up desk space for more efficient use.  Multiplicity 2.0 is currently in BETA and you're invited to try it!

Features in Multiplicity 2:

  • NEW! Simple Setup
    Install Multiplicity 2 on both computers, enter the secondary computer name and passcode, and you're connected!
  • NEW! Transfer Data Between Your PCs
    Copy and paste text, images, and files between your PCs. Multiplicity 2 also adds support for drag and drop of files and folders between machines.
  • NEW! Centralized Audio
    Centralize audio from all of your PCs to a single PC ensure you never miss an email, chat or stock price alert. This capability is perfect for stock trading environments and call centers.
  • NEW! Data Security
    User data is AES-256 encrypted for additional security in sensitive work environments like financial institutions and emergency management centers. Multiplicity’s settings can also be locked to prevent non-administrative users from altering the configuration.
  • NEW! Send Keyboard Input to All Computers Press CTRL three times and Multiplicity starts sending keyboard input to all connected PCs.
  • Control up to 9 machines
    With a purchased copy of Multiplicity 2, control up to 8 secondary computers in addition to your primary machine.

The Multiplicity 2 BETA is available as a free download for controlling one additional computer from https://www.stardock.com/products/multiplicity/beta/.

Note: If you currently have MP1 installed, you will need to uninstall and reboot (the installer prompts this).

mp2_01 mp2_04
First Previous Page 3 of 4 Next Last
Kailef
Reply #41 Sunday, July 29, 2012 11:27 PM

NOTE - Below is a copy of the email I sent to Stardock support yesterday.
Today, I found this forum thanks to a user in your IRC channel, so I'm
posting this support request here as well, because I doubt that the regular
support staff is properly equipped to receive beta test feedback.  I've
updated the email slightly from the one I sent to support yesterday to
reflect things I noticed since then.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not certain where to submit bug reports for the current beta test of
Multiplicity 2.0, and I can't seem to find a beta forum that lists
currently known issues. As such I apologize if I am sending this bug
report to the wrong place, and I also apologize if I am reporting issues
that are already known. If I should be sending bug reports somewhere else,
please let me know?

I've got three systems arranged in a row, and a system below the center
system.  The system on the far right is the primary.

O O O <-Primary
   O

The top three systems are connected via Cat6 cable to a HP Procurve gigabit
switch. The bottom system (The OQO) is connected via Wireless N.

The 2.0 beta of Multiplicity seems to lose connection to the secondary
computers on occasion. It's generally only for a second or two and then
control returns. This is accompanied by a taskbar popup that indicates the
connection was lost and then restored. This did -not- happen in the
previous version of Multiplicity that I just upgraded from. For testing
purposes, I set up continuous pings from my primary PC to the secondary
systems, and during the periods of time that Multiplicity disconnected, the
ping tests didn't show any drops or even an increase in ping time. I
performed several tests, uninstalling the new Multiplicity, restarting each
computer, reinstalling the old one, and testing for a while. The drops
definitely do not happen with the old Multiplicity, and they start
happening again when I reinstall the new one. -- Update -- Today, the
drops haven't been happening at all.  I cannot say with confidence if
the drops are a Multiplicity issue, or not.

The mouse control works well, but I find that (A) the Scroll Lock toggle to
lock to a specific PC won't toggle consistently unless your mouse is on the
master PC screen. On the secondary systems, scroll lock doesn't seem to
always work. It's intermittent and somewhat infrequent, however, and might
be hard to duplicate. If I can come up with way to consistently duplicate
the symptoms I will let you know.

The keyboard control seems to give me the most trouble. Sometimes, even
though I have moved the mouse to one of the secondary screens, the keyboard
input continues to be directed to the primary computer. I haven't been
able to identify why this is happening, but it happens frequently enough
that I keep an extra keyboard and mouse around to connect one of the other
PCs just in case. When this is happening, occasionally one or two of the
letters will be send to the target PC. During the time that this is
happening, mouse control on the secondary machines continues to work fine.
Pressing Control three times causes the single-pc / all PCs function to
toggle (I hear the beeps) but it doesn't change anything - Input continues
to only go the primary PC regardless of which PC currently has focus.

The ability to just drag items between desktops is *fantastic*. It's a
little bit inconsistent, though, as sometimes the icon you are dragging
just kind of "stops" at the border between workstations and the mouse
pointer keeps going.  (I'm not holding down any keys when attempting
to drag and drop) Also, sometimes the copy and paste functionality
doesn't work. I haven't noticed a common thread with regard to what makes
those functions fail. They work most of the time.

Occasionally the "Lock on full screen application" mode will lock the mouse
to the current PC even if there isn't a full screen application running.

The sound transfer functionality (Which basically appears to be Acoustic
Bridge?) works flawlessly, I haven't encountered any problems there.

If I was to make a suggestion, I would say that giving the users more
choice with regard to setting up what hotkeys they would like to use would
be nice. For example, I'd to be able to choose something other that
pressing control three times to toggle multi PC input, and to be able to
pick what key I want to toggle screen locking instead of scroll lock. Your
best competition is a program called Input Director - It offers a robust
system where you can set up specific macros (for lack of a better term)
which will execute specific commands on specific workstations. (For
example, when I was using Input Director with a multiple desktop manager, I
had a single keystroke (the ~ key) which automatically sent that command to
all workstations, causing each one to switch from Desktop 1 to desktop 2.
I can do the same thing with Multiplicity, but I have to press control
three times, then press the tilde key, then press control three more times
to turn it off. That's a seven keystroke process that I was able to
accomplish with one keystroke using Input Director.

Anyhow, thanks for the Multiplicty update. The new features are great, I
think it just needs a bit more polish and it'll be the best mutliPC/single
keyboard product in the world.

RedneckDude
Reply #42 Sunday, July 29, 2012 11:29 PM

Good job Kailef.

Kailef
Reply #43 Sunday, July 29, 2012 11:49 PM

I've got the keyboard problem happening right at this very moment.  If I move the mouse to a secondary PC and click an input field and type, the letters appear only here, on the primary PC, and not on the secondary.  Let me do a more thorough test and tell you what I find.

Okay:  It appears that modifier keys are still being sent to the secondary when this error is occurring.  The Windows key makes the start menu pop up on the secondary, and the backspace key erases existing text on the secondary, and the mouse is fully functional on the secondary.  However, any "regular" keys (1-0, a-z, etc) get sent to the primary PC even though the focus is on the secondary PC.  I suspect the Shift key is also being sent, but I determine that only by noticing that when I have the focus on the secondary PC and I type and the letters appear on the primary PC as I described, if I hold shift down, the letters that are being sent to the Primary do not become capital letters.  (Hopefully I am making sense)  Based on this I would hazard a guess that other special keys are being sent as well.  Let me try Tab.  Yes - Tab is sent to the secondary PC successfully, I can shift the cursor between input boxes with it.

I just tested with another of my secondary PCs, and the problem appears to be happening on all of them, identical symptoms.

I tested by pressing control three times.  I got the double beep that indicates input should be sent to all connected PCs, but there's no actual change in the behavior.  The symptoms are identical, regardless of whether or not Multiplicity is supposed to be sending to all connected PCs or just the PC with focus at the time.

My tests have shown that if I reboot the Primary PC the problem will go away temporarily.  If I reboot one of the secondaries (or all of them) it doesn't appear to change anything.

Hopefully my testing will prove helpful to you!  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask, I'm happy to assist.

Kailef
Reply #44 Sunday, July 29, 2012 11:56 PM

I just spent about thirty minutes with this keyboard input problem happening to me, and it wouldn't stop.  After I posted my last message, I closed my browser (Firefox 14.0.1) and lo and behold, the problem stopped happening immediately.

So I opened the browser again - The problem did not return.  I then went back to this specific web page, where I am typing this post, and the symptoms immediately started happening again.  So, I am now able to consistently duplicate the problem on my end.

I'll gather more details and let you know where and when it happens, and work on identifying what programs do it, which will hopefully help you to track down the source of the issue.

 -Edit-

After posting the message, I immediately moved the mouse to the secondary PC and began hammering keys - After the message posted, keys started going through, then the page reloaded and as soon as it finished reloading the symptoms returned.  I have no evidence to support this supposition, but I think it has something to do with the text input field used for the "Quick Reply" at the bottom of the page.

-Edit 2-

Doesn't happen using Google Chrome.

petrossa
Reply #45 Monday, July 30, 2012 11:46 AM

Neil Banfield

Quoting petrossa, reply 39 



The firewall may be blocking pings.

The odd thing is the code to show the machines is the same as the code to check if a machine is live and so light it up in the UI.  I cannot explain why it does not show as live unless the name lookup is failing.

If you double click on the computer on the grid what does the label on the checkbox say?  It usually says "Always use the IP address (x.x.x.x)".

As a test delete the machine from the UI and manually enter the machine and instead of the name on the add computer dialog, put 192.168.1.12 as the name.

now i get this

nope 

petrossa
Reply #46 Monday, July 30, 2012 2:53 PM

I got it working. Phew. Assbackwards windows firewall should be forbidden by law. It should be in the 'counterintuitive hall of infame'. 

Rosco_P
Reply #47 Monday, July 30, 2012 3:04 PM

petrossa
counterintuitive hall of infame

Is that supposed to be "infamy", or "in flame"?  Because either would work well.  

Kailef
Reply #48 Monday, July 30, 2012 8:25 PM

As a general rule, I turn off UAC and the Windows Firewall immediately upon getting a new computer.  For products supposedly designed to be helpful, it's really amazing just how disruptive and problematic they can be.

No updates, by the way, on my various items I recently reported.  The only issue that I can consistently duplicate is the keyboard redirection problem that I mentioned at length yesterday.

Kailef
Reply #49 Tuesday, July 31, 2012 12:13 PM

Keyboard redirection failure can also be consistently duplicated if you've got Chrome with GMail open on your primary, and you are creating / replying to an email.

Neil Banfield
Reply #50 Tuesday, July 31, 2012 1:06 PM

petrossa
I got it working. Phew. Assbackwards windows firewall should be forbidden by law. It should be in the 'counterintuitive hall of infame'. 

What exactly did you have to change in the firewall?

Neil Banfield
Reply #51 Tuesday, July 31, 2012 1:06 PM

Kailef
Keyboard redirection failure can also be consistently duplicated if you've got Chrome with GMail open on your primary, and you are creating / replying to an email.

It sounds like the app is installing a hook thats grabbing the input before Multiplicity gets it.  I will look into if we can tweak that or not.

petrossa
Reply #52 Tuesday, July 31, 2012 2:46 PM

 

 

Cursor movement gets sticky when you reach the sides of the monitors. As soon as on top appears the popup about the control. Also it wakes the monitor up from the secondary computer even when you don't surpass the side. So far no other major problems. Apart form the odious Windows Firewall setup is indeed as easy as pie.

 

 

 

petrossa
Reply #53 Tuesday, July 31, 2012 2:51 PM

Neil Banfield

Quoting petrossa, reply 46I got it working. Phew. Assbackwards windows firewall should be forbidden by law. It should be in the 'counterintuitive hall of infame'. 

What exactly did you have to change in the firewall?

I'm afraid it won't do you any good but here goes: As usual what you shouldn't do. First i disabled the entire firewall with gpedit. On both computers. No luck. Then i tried your suggestion of direct IP address, and the whole secondary computer was by now invisible. Not in the network, but only in Multiplicity.

So i turned the firewall back on, and reset it to default. I made a rule for the application, and nothing. I then turned of the firewall again because by now nothing worked as all my settings were gone.

3 seconds later Multiplicity was up and running. 

 

 

Rosco_P
Reply #54 Tuesday, July 31, 2012 3:13 PM

Kailef: We responded to your support ticket by asking for some logs, did you get our email on that?

Neil Banfield
Reply #55 Wednesday, August 1, 2012 4:31 AM

petrossa
 

 

Cursor movement gets sticky when you reach the sides of the monitors. As soon as on top appears the popup about the control. Also it wakes the monitor up from the secondary computer even when you don't surpass the side. So far no other major problems. Apart form the odious Windows Firewall setup is indeed as easy as pie.
 

I am sorry but I don't quite understand this.

As soon as on top appears the popup about the control = ?

Snowman
Reply #56 Wednesday, August 1, 2012 3:49 PM

I've finally gotten MP2 up and running, and connected.

Awesomous maximus!! Love the new GUI. Way easier to configure than older versions!

Though.... had to disable the XP firewall (secondary machine) before a connection could be made.
No real biggie. Nothing important is stored on the machine - just XP.

Anyway.... One question regarding audio sharing:

Is that a one way deal only? Primary -> secondary/secondaries?
Or is it possible the other way too?
In that case, how?!

Audio sharing is enabled on primary

but nowhere to "Enter the information below on the sending computers to send audio to this computer" on the secondary:

ZubaZ
Reply #57 Wednesday, August 1, 2012 4:00 PM

Snowy.  Try changing your secondary to be a primary, verify that you you have Audio, and then go back to secondary.

Snowman
Reply #58 Wednesday, August 1, 2012 4:38 PM

That was a no-go. Was unable to connect when switching around - even with fully disabled firewalls on both ends.
I suspect the XP network settings might be 'wunky'. It -is- a very old setup, installed on a totally different hardware configuration.

Might have to reinstall to get everything to work.

One other question/issue, this time on switching to primary from secondary:

My primary machine is a three monitor setup, secondary is a single monitor.
I have the secondary monitor placed above the middle (main) primary monitor.

I can switch to the secondary from any primary monitor, but when I switch back to the primary is always switches to the monitor on the left.
Something like this:

Will there be any options in the future to manage wich monitor to switch to on multi monitor setups?

Neil Banfield
Reply #59 Wednesday, August 1, 2012 5:36 PM

Snowman
That was a no-go. Was unable to connect when switching around - even with fully disabled firewalls on both ends.
I suspect the XP network settings might be 'wunky'. It -is- a very old setup, installed on a totally different hardware configuration.

Might have to reinstall to get everything to work.

One other question/issue, this time on switching to primary from secondary:

My primary machine is a three monitor setup, secondary is a single monitor.
I have the secondary monitor placed above the middle (main) primary monitor.

I can switch to the secondary from any primary monitor, but when I switch back to the primary is always switches to the monitor on the left.
Something like this:Reduced 10%Original 5520 x 1968

Will there be any options in the future to manage wich monitor to switch to on multi monitor setups?

XP does not support audio sharing.

Snowman
Reply #60 Wednesday, August 1, 2012 5:50 PM

Neil Banfield

XP does not support audio sharing.

DOH! >.<

Well, I'll slap on Vista instead then.
Half the (newly) installed applications aren't fully functional. Missing .NET (which needs SP3) and various other mishaps.

Thanks for the reply, Neil.

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