cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Replies are disabled for this topic. Start a new one or visit our Help Center.

cast from hotspotted laptop to tv without a (reliable) wifi

threejtr
Community Member

Bit of a ramble here....... Our RV Park has no wifi so we connect to their coaxial cable for very limited choice of channels on our TV. I want to take my chrome cast , laptop with ext hard drive loaded with movies pics etc with me and try it there. So I'm doing a test run at home now. I am simulating a non wi-fi setting at home to test. So i connect my laptop (10yr old-upgraded to windows 10 recently from 7), to my android phone using hot spot. That works fine. I then plug chrome cast into my tv at home and it starts with the preloaded pictures that come with it. On my windows 10 laptop i open google chrome and click on cast in upper rh corner. Box opens, searches for device, comes up empty.

If i disable hotspot and turn on wireless on laptop it casts my desktop just fine after i choose to cast from desktop in drop down choices.

I've tried disconnecting my isp's  hdmi cable from tv, thinking it might be interferring but doesn't seem to make a difference if it's plugged in or not.

Is there a workaround to my issue or am i missing it?

Thanks

1 Recommended Answer

Byteguy
Gold Product Expert
Gold Product Expert

It sounds like your Chromecast is still set to your HOME WiFi network (which is why it comes up and goes to the pictures - those come over WiFi from the internet).

That would explain why your computer that is attached to your phone's hotspot can't find the Chromecast.  They are on different networks.

What you're trying to do isn't officially supported.  Chromecast devices need a network with full internet access.  Even if you're just trying to cast your desktop.

You could make it work if you got both your Chromecast and your computer hooked up to your phone's hotspot at the same time (you may need ANOTHER phone or tablet to do that since your phone probably can't make the hotspot AND run the Google Home app to do the setup at the same time).

But, that will still require your phone to have a signal so it can reach the internet while you are camping so your Chromecast device can contact the internet (it will refuse to do anything if it can't)

For your situation, the simplest solution would be to just get an HDMI cable from your computer to your TV or monitor that you are using while camping.  No internet or hotspot required.  Just connect and play your movies off of your hard-drive.

View Recommended Answer in original post

3 REPLIES 3

Byteguy
Gold Product Expert
Gold Product Expert

It sounds like your Chromecast is still set to your HOME WiFi network (which is why it comes up and goes to the pictures - those come over WiFi from the internet).

That would explain why your computer that is attached to your phone's hotspot can't find the Chromecast.  They are on different networks.

What you're trying to do isn't officially supported.  Chromecast devices need a network with full internet access.  Even if you're just trying to cast your desktop.

You could make it work if you got both your Chromecast and your computer hooked up to your phone's hotspot at the same time (you may need ANOTHER phone or tablet to do that since your phone probably can't make the hotspot AND run the Google Home app to do the setup at the same time).

But, that will still require your phone to have a signal so it can reach the internet while you are camping so your Chromecast device can contact the internet (it will refuse to do anything if it can't)

For your situation, the simplest solution would be to just get an HDMI cable from your computer to your TV or monitor that you are using while camping.  No internet or hotspot required.  Just connect and play your movies off of your hard-drive.

threejtr
Community Member

Thanks very much. That will be the simplest fix

 

Jeran
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey there!

It looks like Byteguy was able to help out threejtr, so I'm locking the thread. As always, feel free to make a new thread if you have any more questions or concerns.

Thank you for your help, Byteguy!

Best regards,
Jeran