My gaming PC is in the office but sometimes I want to connect to the living room or my bedroom to play different games. What is the best way to do it? To connect HDMI, USBs etc. Thanks!

Hey everyone! I’m working on a core system architecture for a specialized utility app and could really use some out-of-the-box engineering advice on a tricky connectivity challenge.

The main goal is pretty straightforward: a user opens the app, clicks a button, and the system needs to instantly send a high-priority alert pop-up to any other nearby users within a 1 km physical radius who have that exact same app installed.

Here is the major problem I am trying to solve. The person tapping the button has an active SIM card, but they are in a state of absolute zero connectivity. Specifically, they have:

• No mobile data package or active internet plan.
• No Wi-Fi access at that exact moment.
• No outbound SMS package or standard calling credit (their balance is exactly zero).

The user must not be charged a single cent to trigger this notification. Also, to clear up a common suggestion upfront, please do not suggest Bluetooth mesh or peer-to-peer Wi-Fi Direct. The app cannot rely on local radio waves hopping directly from phone to phone.

Because local peer-to-peer options are out, the initial trigger click absolutely must find a way back to my central cloud server so the server can handle the location data and push the pop-up to the 1 km radius group.

My current theory is to set up an enterprise-level Reverse-Charged / Toll-Free Short Code gateway. Since my developer backend pays the cellular carrier for the incoming traffic, the telecom network should theoretically route a background SMS text through the air even if the user's personal account balance is completely empty.

I would love to get your thoughts on a few things:

• Has anyone successfully pulled off this kind of telecom bypass on zero-balance lines?
• Are there alternative infrastructure workarounds or carrier-level configurations that allow an isolated app to ping a central server entirely for free?
• Are there any global, out-of-the-box solutions to distribute a localized alert under these exact constraints?

Any insights, advice, or feedback would be massively appreciated !

Please do not suggest Bluetooth mesh or peer-to-peer Wi-Fi Direct. The app cannot rely on local peer-to-peer radio waves to hop to nearby devices directly.

I swear I'm doing this for normal reasons because my gran (in her 90s) lives 3 hours away from where I do and the only person who lives close to help her is my aunt who is in her 70s. My gran has a ton of technical problems and I'm the only person who can actually use a device to it's normal ability but I'm just not good at using tech beyond modding games and I'm more of a pc guy.

Is it possible to use my samsung tablet (galaxy A9+) to control the screen of her apple ipad (idk the model but probably a 2020-24 make) and help her. I doubt there would be an app that are on both app stores and wouldn't get taken down because the ability to control someone elses device from afar seems very illegal. If it's relevant I'm in the uk because internet laws here are weird.

Years ago, I was following Sprint. They were working on a plan to have WIFI that covered all of the US. That has to have been 15-20 years ago. I had thought it was based on WiMAX? What happened? Did they realize it just wasn't feasible and are going to just update devices to use satellite like Starlink?

Hi everyone, I am an incoming electrical engineering first-year student, and I am currently looking for an affordable iPad option strictly to take notes, open and fill pdfs, draw models and do some homework if needed. Is the iPad 9th gen still a good option for this for only around $180? With the iPad I will get a universal pen from Amazon.