Hi myself and my husband share a pc which is a rather simple setup, but now I wish to create a small office area for myself in another room.
The pc setup so far is as follows below.
its a gtx1060 with a ryzen cpu that we built earlier this year in our small budget
it runs windows 10
We have 2 screens at the moment (one each or when single use the user may use both).
We both have speakers, mouse and keyboards each and my self a wacom tablet.
The system is split into 2 users with the help of software called Aster so we can both use the pc the same time, its amazing and saved us the cost of a second PC.
The pc currently is hooked up in the living room area and I want to be able access my account in a different room, but the issue is we rent this place and can not drill into the wall to put a cable through.
I need some brainstorming ideas please to help me put my screen/mouse/keyboard/wacom etc into room 2 with out any delays in picture or control.
I was personally wondering if I can get extensions over 10m for both the usb devices and video cables, but I heard that over a certain limit the the picture won’t send.
I really don’t wish to waste money on a cable again that may not work ? as before we struggled to get the old vga screen to work.
Hm, at first glance I’d say get a Raspberry for the second screen, switch everything to Linux and connect via SSH.
But something tells me you likely don’t want to go the Linux route.
You might want to look into teamviewer. Likely you can fiddle something up with it. Would need an Pi and Linux anyway…
I did give linux a good try a while ago but my husband really struggled with it as his games are all windows and a basic user, i gave wine a good shot to fill in the gap for him but it’s too much work for something that should play out box. There was also a problem with firefox or chrome at the time which could not do flash player.
I also still have a raspberry pi sitting in a draw someplace hoping that I one day find a new use for it, it had a good life playing all our dvd’s/bluerays on the Television but this new PC is also hooked to the Tv and runs Kodi. I still remeber the day in which we had to convert over 200 dvd’s to digital, thank god for Google Movies its the real hero here.
I thought that SSH was for file transfers etc ?, I personally run a FTP server for this and its great as most of my devices can access it.
As for teamviewer I have tried this route but with software called splashtop and it does a pretty good job but then we moved house and now the internet is so slow that royail mail is faster to send large files.
Also we only have 1 PC now so it would require another small computer in the other room to be used as the viewer.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/353380/Steam_Link/
a Steamlink could probably be a solution here since it allows a wireless connection, make sure to read the Hardware Requirements!
If there is a need for more than the current 3 USB ports (Keyboard, mouse and tablet), an powered USB Hub would be needed.
Hi,
Have you asked your landlord for permission to go through the wall? Landlords I have had in the past would allow things if you promised to repair it to a move in state when you move out.
Patching the two holes is a simple and cheap thing to do, some wall spackle and paint. Pretty easy to do.
If your landlord does allow it, I would recommend using a PVC pipe as a conduit to keep any rodents in the wall chewing on the cables or entering your rooms. Make sure that the conduit Inner diameter is large enough to pass through the LARGEST connector you have.
I have done this in my home, where i run cables from my office to the living room, each having a pc. Also run audio cables from entertainment system to office.
As far as cable length goes:
For usb
For video…Assuming using DVI-D
I have run DVI-D up to 25 feet with no issues, your GPU should handle this no problem.
HDMI can generally run up to 50 feet.
Don’t buy cheap video cable! Get fairly good quality video cable, does not have to be top of the line.
Hope this is of some help, ask your landlord nicely, let him know what you are doing, he’ll most likely have no problem with it.
Thank you, the information given on the usb maximum length is most appreciated .
I’ll give my landlord a call on monday to see if he would allow this, his been a bit refusive in the past (took months to get permission for my kitty) but not impossible. The idea of the PVC is a great and my hubby loves some diy and if not I got a handyman on speed dial.
The gpu is using both the dvi-d and the hdmi slots, however the hdmi had to hooked up to a active convertor as the smaller screen(temporary until next year) is a old vga, then I realised how old I’ve gotten and my 30th birthday the other day didn’t help too much. lol x
I just looked up USB’s part of my issue as the screens should be easy with a long enough cable(if my landlord refuses permission).
Apparently there is USB repeaters that should do the job when paired with a self powered USB hub, could anyone confirm this please ?.
Hi,
What your looking for is a 3 or 4 or 5 port usb hub that is self powered, meaning that it plugs into a wall AC socket. This way your not pulling power from your computer usb power supply, that can not supply long cable runs.
Depending how long your run is, 2 hubs may be needed.
4 to 5 ports are usually the cheapest.
2.0 usb hubs are cheaper, but if your pc and devices supports 3.0 usb, you may want to go that way also, but cost more.
If you have an amazon.com membership, there are plenty to choose from, try not to go too cheap, but not necessary to to buy top of the line also.
A couple of more tips on the cable pass through:
when cutting the pvc conduit, leave about 1/4 inch sticking out on each wall, then put some cheap caulking around the conduit/wall to seal it up to prevent heat loss/drafts and insects crawling through. This will also hold the conduit in place. When moving out, just peel off the caulking to remove the conduit.
make sure that the placement of the conduit is at least 3 feet away from any wall electrical sockets. This will prevent any ac interference picked up by the cables.
And keep the conduit as low on the wall as possible, inch or 2 above the baseboard.
Hope this helps…good luck…and Happy 30th Birthday!
XYZero
Might be worth looking into Logitech mouse and keyboards, the ones that use the Unifying reciever. I have a mouse that uses it and two USB recievers (these are cheap, about $10 each). I have a gaming laptop that is windows 10 based and my main work station is a Mac. with the driver installed, i can move my mouse off the left edge of my mac and it comes out the windows 10 laptop top I can also copy a file off the windows desktop and paste it on the mac… shared clipboard. Its totaly voodoo. I dont know what the maximum range is it, but it might be worth a shot. basically means you can share a keyboard and mouse with many computers, if you have enough recievers.
I’m going to go for a 5 port hub as it would give more room for expansion in the future if ever needed.
Later on if I can find the tape measure I’m going to work out how long of a cable is required, from the looks of it the shortest path looks to be about 12 meters.
The PC has USB 3 on the motherboard but I’m not too bothered by the speeds of data transfer speeds, a few minutes of patience dont hurt too much.
Not got an amazon account as I normally buy from ebuyer or argos(fast track same day delivery). I’m currently searching for a hub(uk based) but not getting many results.
Hopefully the landlord will give permission as it will be so much quicker, literally the spot to be designated as office space is ironically on the other side of this wall. If I do need to run a cable around instead it’s got to go out the room into the hallway into the other room then across the wall to its position.
So making a hole with these tips (most appreciated) would be so much easier and quicker.
I haven’t heard of the unifying receivers with logitech , wouldn’t that require 2 pc’s ?. In my case it is just one shared pc with 2 users that can log in simultaneously thanks to Aster software.
I must say being able to copy and paste to a second computer would be amazing tool, but even still my ftp allows it quickly when needed.
Yes, I use the logitech K350 keyboard/M705 mouse wireless, you can use multiple logitech wireless keyboards/mouses on 1 receiver. Batteries last for like 2 to 3 years, have 2 sets, been using them for years.
Don’t know about the copy/paste thing though.
Thank you sorry for the late reply been a little busy, I’m justing waiting now for my husband to give me the go ahead as our landlord yesterday denied pretty much straight away(I mentioned repairs when we move out but no luck).
I’ve used Belkin several times in the past, had a wifi dongle with them once and some cables, I’ll give TP-link and add it to my basket. With some luck i’ll be set up for the holidays and I can lay back in Blender and just crack on. x
In case anyone is interested in an update, after much time picking the perfect parts and finding a self powered usb extension with built in hub my husband decided to move the whole PC into the other room bless him to make my life easier.
Now the agreement is to split my office space into 2 so he too can access the system, and as for the main TV its now having the old raspberry pie reinstalled with a kodi and hard drive for the movies we converted in the past, also netflix plus youtube(google movies) should fill the media gap. Looks like I’m now in the market for a cheap screen or 2 for my hubby. x
If he goes back on his word i’ll kill him, as i deleted the shopping list and spent a good 2 hours moving things around
I can also copy a file off the windows desktop and paste it on the mac… shared clipboard. Its totaly voodoo. I dont know what the maximum range is it, but it might be worth a shot. basically means you can share a keyboard and mouse with many computers, if you have enough recievers.