One of my old coworkers has been out of town for 10 days, and she asked me to dog/house sit. The thing is, it’s also my vacation (shout out to academia giving winter break to employees). So I’m spending my vacation at her place with her dogs, which is awesome because I love her dogs, but I was really looking forward to playing video games over break. So, I was going back and forth to my place to bake gifts for Christmas and play some games when, one day, my friend told me about Steam Link, and how he uses his phone to play games that are on his PC.
Let me tell you this information felt like a Christmas miracle. Here’s the set up:
First, I got one of those attachments for my Xbox controller that will hold my phone for me while I game on the controller. I’m going to be honest, I had no idea you could link an Xbox controller to an iPhone, but hey, it works.
I also ordered a Kasa Smart Plug Mini so I could plug that into my powerstrip, then plug my PC into it. I linked it to my phone, which was super easy and voilà, I can now turn the plug on and off no matter my location.
Now, the most important part, I had to go into my BIOS and change one of my settings. It was something like “Restore after AC Power Loss” that I switched to “Power On”. This allows your PC to turn itself on when AC power is restored. So when I turn my smart plug on, my PC will automatically power up.
The next vital component to this set up is how to log into your PC when you’re away. I use TeamViewer for this on my home PC and then on my iPhone. There's a setting to enable for TeamViewer to open on start-up. Make sure to create an account as well, because it allows you to save devices so you don't have to enter a password every time to connect.
This gets me to my log in screen so I can put my PIN in and get Steam going (personally I have Steam opening on startup as well via task manager). There's also another setting in TeamViewer in the Advanced options to switch "Lock computer" to "Never". If this isn't checked, TeamViewer will sign you out of your PC after disabling the connection.
If you forget to switch this, not a problem. Steam Link is through "Big Picture Mode" in Steam, so if your computer locks while Steam Link is working, you should be able to type your PIN in through Steam Link. (I would disable Big Picture Mode before closing my connection before I figured out how to change the setting).
Here's my MacBook streaming my Windows PC using Steam Link!
For Steam Link to work, you have to set everything up on the same WiFi. I downloaded it on my iPhone and my MacBook, then connected my PC to my two devices, and now I can game anywhere. Like I was gaming on the car ride back to my old coworker’s house using my phone (I wasn’t driving), then I was able to get on my laptop when I arrived and I’ve been able to game to my heart’s content ever since.
A couple caveats… you need a good WiFi connection to game. When I was testing it out on my MacBook at my house, it wasn’t that great, I think because I was streaming and receiving on the same WiFi, but also I hadn’t optimized the graphics settings and my PC was acting up when I closed my laptop and went to play on my PC, so… grain of salt there.
If you’re using your phone and you’re not on WiFi, it does take up a lot of data, so make sure you have an unlimited plan or something before you try this with your mobile device.
Other than that, I have no real complaints.. yet. It’s literally been three days with Steam Link and I think of it as a god send. Do with this information as you will, but I will recommend it until I can’t no more. Enjoy your travel gaming!
-Beck
P.S. None of this is sponsored, I just got the cheapest version of everything and full sent it.
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