Use an app on another computer

The extension and the app need not be on the same computer. Run the desktop app on one computer, or Thaumic Cast Server on a box in a cupboard, and cast from a browser on any other computer on the same network. One app serves every browser in the house.

Left to itself, the extension looks for the app on its own computer only. For anywhere else, it has to be told the address.

Find the app’s address

• Desktop app: open its Server view. Address shows it, with Copy address.
• Thaumic Cast Server: the machine’s address on your network, and port 49400 unless you changed it. Your router lists it, and so does hostname -I on the machine.

Addresses look like http://192.168.1.20:49400.

Point the extension at it

1. Open the extension’s Settings and go to Companion.
2. Choose Enter the address, and type the address under Server address.
3. Select Connect.
4. Your browser asks whether the extension may use that address. Allow it: it covers that one address and nothing else.

Thaumic Cast answered means it worked; the address is saved only then. The top of the popup now says Connected to the server, or Connected to the desktop app.

In the extension’s first-run tour, the same is under Enter the address yourself.

If it says something else, see The extension cannot find the app.

The app’s firewall

The computer running the app has to let in 49400/tcp from your network, from the speakers and now from this browser too. The rules for each system are in Firewall and ports.

What works from afar

Everything except:

• Browser-wide capture. Only the desktop app can capture a browser, and only on its own computer.
• The speaker settings. The speaker head start, speaker monitoring and clock drift correction belong to the companion, so they are changed where it runs: in the desktop app’s Settings, or in the server’s config. The extension’s speaker notices say where.

The rooms, the casts and the extension’s own settings work as they do on one computer. Several browsers can cast through one companion at once, up to 10 casts in all, and each sees the others’ rooms as Casting from elsewhere.

Go back to this computer

In Companion, choose Find it automatically. The extension looks on this computer again straight away.