Google ChromeCast without internet connection ? Is that possible ?

So I've started my investigation just some weeks after my practical training began. My supervisor stopped caring about me, because there are customers he had to have more care about. At this time, I really didn't know, what to do - it was boring ... very boring. And at one day, before I went to work, I turned on my computer, which is standing at home. After one hour, I arrived at work.

I turned on my notebook, which owns the company. This notebook has a dead battery and no connection to the company's network, because "it is old", like my supervisor said. That's why the department, which is managing this network, banned this notebook.

I began using my smartphone as port to the internet. Before I turned off my screens of my computer at home (which I'm doing everytime, when keeping my computer running), I run TeamViewer.

WORKING FROM WORK AT HOME

At work, I run the TeamViewer client for Android smartphones. The connection was established fast, so I continued on my server software I'm programming at home. I was amazed that this worked.

Some weeks later, I was tired of the onscreen keyboard by android.

In the meantime, I was getting some more work by my supervisor every month, which I finished in the average time of three days.Well ..

Because I was tired of the screen keyboard, as I said, I bought an external keyboard by KeySonic. The keyboard KSK3220BT. The BT stands for BlueTooth and yes, it gets connected via BlueTooth. I bought it because it has an integrated touchpad - a mouse for travelling.

I worked a week or two with it and I wasn't getting very used to this keyboard - the keyboard is relativly small, just like my smartphone's display.

THE BUILT-IN CURSOR OF ANDROID

Now we arrived at a point in my story, which disappointed me. When you connect my smartphone, which is the HTC One mini 2 by the way, Android's built-in cursor appears. Now starting using TeamViewer completes the problem: Android's cursor doesn't synchronize with the cursor on my remote computer, which means, you have to drag and drop the remote cursor all the time.

I searched for a solution and found out there's only this screen made by TeamViewer, telling you how to use TeamViewer - which doesn't solve this problem.

Then I explored the Google Play Store for more remote desktop solutions and got the Google Chrome Remote Desktop extension. Everything you have to do is installing the Android app, installing the Google Chrome extension and use the softw... no wait - you have to install an external program developed by Google, which makes it even possible, to share your screen! Well done.

So I installed this piece of software too and there it goes! I got a connection. But seconds after the connection was established, I got disappointed by this software too. The framerate made it impossible to control my remote home computer and even the Android cursor didn't synchronized with my remote cursor. (And that's a product by Google itself!)

I did not try any of the other solutions by unknown companys, because the risk installing even more crap was big enough, in my opinion.

THE REQUIREMENTS AND EVEN MORE FAILURES

I searched again, but I did not found any software, which is combining a VPN client, a remote desktop client and is for free. I even tried the service of LogMeIn, but everything you get is not Hamachi, but a 14-Days trial for their remote desktop solution.

So I continued with testing. I tried to use the VPN service by TeamViewer, but this service is not integrated in the TeamViewer Android app.

I tried Tunngle, a VPN service for gaming - but they didn't implement an Android app.

At the end, I changed my opinion for services by unknown companies and installed one of the best app the Appstore recommended me: NeoRouter by NeoRouter Inc. .

Yes, I searched for apps, which are able to connect a smartphone and a computer.

It's possible to create one free network with NeoRouter, not in the app, but on their website.

I created my network, tried to connect my Android and my computer with this network, but neither my home computer nor my Android device were able to connect to this network - and I tried serveral times.

A NEW IDEA MUST BE BORN

Because I found no more apps fitting my requirements, I asked my father, whether he gaves me my access to our routers VPN. After that, I installed the solution by Microsoft and there you go, first world problem! Microsoft is really able to get the position of Androids cursor (even without root access) and synchronize the position of the cursor with the one on my remote pc. That was a great moment! Until I realized, that this app is sending the english keyboard layout only! But I needed the german layout for my external german keyboard I bought before! Well done, Microsoft, well done.

AND THERE COMES THE CHROMECAST

In the meanwhile I got tired of the screen of my smartphone, so I bought a ChromeCast.

I ordered this device two months before my practical training in my company ended.

The ChromeCast arrived and the first problems I met were setting the hostname of the ChromeCast and of the Wireless LAN, which the ChromeCast creates for setup and for guestmode only.

After frickling with the setting, I wasn't able to change these names. Because I didn't want to make my ChromeCast available for everyone connecting to the guest network of my company, I tried to connect my ChromeCast to my hotspot of my smartphone. I setup my ChromeCast until the ChromeCast wants to connect to my home network, there I set my hotspot as SSID and well done! But .. oh no! The ChromeCast was connected successfully to my hotspot, but the dongle disconnected automatically.

That's it. The end of this timeline.

I would like to hear about your experiences with building a Continuum-like system with a smartphone, which doesn't support Android OTG (On-The-Go)! Please leave a comment below, thanks! :)