I want to send what’s on my PC’s screen (ethernet connection) to my living room’s Smart TV on my wireless network

[dennphill]

Have a desktop PC running Win 8.1, and connected to the internet by cable (from my cable provider, but with my own cable modem) through my WiFi router, a TP- Link Archer C7 AC 1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabyte Router. The PC is connected to the router with an ethernet CAT 5E cable. Good connections, good internet…pretty fast…so no issues there with the wired connection. Wireless at my home, is from the Archer C7, and provides either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz WiFi to a few devices. WiFi works well – no issues.
• I have several laptops (Toshiba Satellite C650D laptop Win 7 and a Toshiba Satellite L740 Win 10) connected to my WiFi network.
• I have an LG smart TV in the bedroom also connected to WiFi, as well as a connected ROKU 3 device and another ROKU 2 in the guest bedroom with that TV.
• I have a ROKU TCL smart TV in the living room that is connected also to the WiFi network.

My question is what can I do – short of extensively re-wiring my home to provide all ethernet– to be able to connect my PC (ethernet-connected to the router) to the living room ROKU TCL smart TV connected by WiFi?

1. I guess I could just run another CAT 5E ethernet cable from the router directly to the ROKU smart TV putting it on the ethernet network with the PC, right? Of course, this would not give me the ability to go from the PC to the bedroom TV (with the ROKU 3) unless I ran yet another ethernet cable. (And I really don’t want to re-wire the house.)
2. I assume that the current wired network (my Private Network 2) of the PC to the router with the ethernet cable, and the router’s WiFi network broadcast to the whole house are separate and distinct (and ‘never the twain shall meet’), right? If this assumption is wrong and they (the wired and the wireless networks) can be joined, please point me to an instructional link….I haven’t been able to find one.
3. So that leave the possibility of simply buying and installing a WiFi adapter (an added PCIe card from Amazon or NewEgg probably) for the PC…then removing the ethernet connection and joining the desktop PC to the WiFi network. I don’t prefer to do this unless it is the only or best choice I have. I think my internet connection (now pretty speedy at > 100 Mbps D/L (I pay for > 50 Mbps) and >9 Mbps U/L) will be affected by putting the PC on the wireless network.

Thanks for the attention. Please excuse my ignorance here…I can build PCs but sometimes the S/W and OS configurations take me a lot of time and effort…and networking is really something I am pretty dumb about. I touch it so seldom. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Solandri]

Windows 8.1 and 10 support casting. Windows 7 does not.

Most Roku devices also support casting (well, receiving the cast; you can't cast your Roku to your PC screen to watch the Roku on your PC). I'm not sure about the Roku TCL smart TV.

https://support.roku.com/article/208754928-how-to-use-screen-mirroring-with-your-android-or-windows-device

It will work over WiFi (I only tested it with 802.11ac). But performance will be smoother over Ethernet (both the casting device and the Roku). Your Internet speed is not a factor unless you're trying to cast from outside your home into your home network via a VPN.

 

[dennphill]

Hi, Solandri. Thanks. Read all of that. But the Desktop PC on an ethernet network (from the TP-Link Archer wireless router connected to the PC) I guess cannot communicate to the (or over the) wireless network from the TP-Link Archer's wireless networks. I guess I need to get both the ROKU TV as well as my PC on THE SAME NETWORK...in other words, I need to run an ethernet cable from the TP-Link Archer wireless router to the ROKU TV (so that the ROKU TV and the desktop PC are both on the ethernet network). Alternatively, I could disconnect the ethernet connection and put my desktop PC on the wireless network (buying and installing a wireless (WiFi) PCIe adapter. I guess I need to either of these to "cast" video or images, or whatever form my PC to the ROKU TV.
Well, I don't particularly like either of these options...and I guess I answered my own question. (Maybe I still don't understand.)
Thank you for your time and your response.
I guess I just don't see why, when I connect my PC to the wireless router by ethernet (quickest, best connection to the internet from my cable provider) I have "one network - here it's called Network 2" with my ethernet connection, but the same router's WiFi network (the WiFi networks are called "XXXXXXXXX 2.4" and "XXXXXXX5.0") cannot apparently access the the PC's wired "Network 2".

 

[Solandri]

Aside from guest networks, the wireless and wired networks on a router are the same. And devices on one should be able to see and communicate with devices on the other. Some routers have an isolation feature on their wireless network. For security purposes, wireless devices are prevented from accessing anything on the LAN, only the Internet (basically acts like it's connected to a guest network). So I would:

1. Make sure you're connecting to the private wireless network, not a guest wireless network.

2. If you've confirmed (1), go through the router's wireless settings and disable anything that looks like it might be related to device isolation. Just be aware that doing so allows anyone who connects to your wireless network to view and communicate with devices on your LAN. Not really a problem if you're strict about password security, but forewarned is forearmed.

The "Network 2" name is something Windows makes up and is for tracking networks that Windows has connected to. The name has no relation to anything else on your network. It's just numbered according to the different networks that computer's installation of Windows has encountered, in the order it encountered them. The xxxxx.2.4 and xxxxx5.0 Wireless names are SSIDs. They're just the name of the Wireless network, and do not affect your access to the LAN.

A LAN doesn't have an intrinsic name. The closest thing is the gateway and subnet range. Like 192.168.0.1 for a gateway, and 192.168.0.x (where x = 0-255) for a subnet range. You can check these on the computer and Roku to make sure they match. (Just the gateway and subnet should match; the IP address will be different for each device.)