Using Splashtop for Viewing BBC iPlayer

[Harters]

I am off to Florida in 3 weeks’ time for just over 3 weeks and I have been looking at various websites that let you watch UK based TV, BBC iPlayer etc for a monthly fee of around £10 as I don’t relish the idea of catching up on all the TV I have to watch

It got me thinking, could I load Splashtop on to an old laptop I have, plug it into my router via CAT5 instead of wireless and watch TV that way via my iPad? I have been looking at setting up VPN etc, but I get lost in the terminology. I am not sure how my way would perform, if at all, due to bandwidth etc.

Am I being totally simplistic in my view, or could it work? I know the laptop would have to stay on all the time which is a bit of a worry, unless I could also find a way of waking it up remotely?

Appreciate your comments.

Thanks

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Splashtop can wake up a 'wired' Ethernet connected PC in 'Sleep' mode.

Whether your proposal would work would depend on the net data rate across the Internet from your connection in Florida to the UK. When I've been in the US, I've found it's fine for watching static webpages, but movies etc are jerky at best.

Tim

 

[Harters]

Thanks Tim

I did think I was pushing my luck trying to stream video, but interesting that Splashtop will wake a sleeping PC from a wired connection.

I may have a try out from work tomorrow

Sent from my iPad 2 using iPF

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Let us know how you get on..

Tim

 

[Harters]

Let us know how you get on..

Tim

I tried it out on my old laptop tonight, but for some reason, when ever I tired to control it from my iPad none of the commands were recognised, but as soon as I closed the app on the iPad the laptop did the commands I asked of it.... Can't work that one out. It is a pretty old laptop so maybe it's not up to the task

On a more positive note, I managed to control my main PC really well (as usual). I opened up a browser and started the iplayer and I could watch it on the iPad flawlessly, no jerking at all. How that will perform when I'm not on the same network could be a different story though. It will be a couple of days before I can try it from a different wireless network.

Sent from my iPad 2 using iPF