One client multiple server

Submitted by arjunbatra on #1

Hi there, this is my first post and I stumbled upon this website in search for USB Keyboard over network solution. Apologize if this has been asked before and please direct me to forum where this was discussed as I couldn’t find it. Here is the scenario:

I have a media center computer running windows 10. I have it sitting in my basement and have it connected via HDBaseT device so I can view it from any TV in my house. I am looking for a solution to use wireless usb keyboard/mouse combo to connect to my computer while I am in front of my TV on 2nd floor. Remember, computer is in basement. There isn’t a single wireless USB keyboard/mouse combo I could find that can have that type of range for connectivity. To overcome this, I started thinking about having keyboard USB dongle connected to my computer over WIFI/Network.

Here is my thought process on how Virtualhere can help me: I install Virtualhere server on Rasberry Pi that would be in the same room as TV (second floor) and connect USB dongle to that device. I connect rasberry pi to same network as my PC and install Virtualhere client on PC. That way, i would be able to use USB wireless keyboard/mouse to interact with my PC.

Here are my concerns/questions:
1. Is there a lag in connectivity? Remember TV would be displaying near realtime stream of computer screen but mouse and keyboard are connected over network to that computer.
2. Can I have multiple Virtualhere server connected to same client (PC). That way, I can have 1 virtualhere server in each room with its own multimedia keyboard instead of carrying same keyboard/mouse to everyroom.
3. Likely most important question, is my understand of Virtualhere software correct and it can do solve for my scenario?

Submitted by Michael on Fri, 2020/04/17 - 08:41

#2

Yes you are correct about all of that. The latency would be minimal especially if you use LAN connections for all links. You could set the "Auto-Use Device" on the client to auto connect whenever it's plugged into the pi

Submitted by arjunbatra on Fri, 2020/04/17 - 09:39

#3

Thank you Michael, that’s very helpful. Question on using PI, if PI for whatever reason lose power and gets restarted, would it automatically establish the connection? and Can I use multiple servers on one client to connect simultanously?

Submitted by Michael on Fri, 2020/04/17 - 15:25

#4

Yes to both

Submitted by arjunbatra on Mon, 2020/04/27 - 04:02

#5

So I tried this with One Server (running on Raspberry Pi4) and One Client running on Windows 10. It was working fine for few days and suddenly it started acting up where client would keep connecting and disconnecting from the server. Any thoughts on what could be causing this? Only change is that Windows machine went through a restart. Everything else including Wifi location, Raspberry Pi location etc. is same.

Submitted by Michael on Mon, 2020/04/27 - 08:12

#6

Are you running the latest virtualhere client 5.0.0? If not, can you update to that. That has a fix for windows update breaking bonjour (auto-find)

Submitted by arjunbatra on Tue, 2020/04/28 - 05:02

#7

Hi Michael, I am running the latest version and the problem seems to have auto-resolved. I have my windows machine (which acts as my media center) to restart on weekly basis on Sunday. I will wait for next restart and advise if the problem surfaces again.

Submitted by arjunbatra on Tue, 2020/05/05 - 07:17

#8

Hi Michael, I’ve been using virtual here server for few weeks now. Following is my setup:

Virtual Here Server running on Raspberry Pi 4b. Connected to network over wireless.
Virtual Here Client running on Windows 10. Connected to network over wired cable.
USB Device connected to virtual here server: USB keyboard/mouse combo.

My virtual client keeps dropping connection to server and wouldn’t restore even after restart of client. This is very annoying, not sure what the cause is.. could you help?

Submitted by Michael on Tue, 2020/05/05 - 11:10

#9

If it keeps dropping have a look in the Client log by right clicking USB Hubs->System Messages...

Also download 5.0.2 of the client and run that instead.

See what is says there. Paste in the messages here

Submitted by GrogD on Wed, 2020/05/06 - 03:08

#10

@arjunbatra

I was experiencing an issue similar to yours, and in my case it turned out to be the USB ethernet adapter I was using. Restarting the computer caused it to drop connection over and over until I unplugged the adapter and plugged it back in. Maybe try shutting down the client computer, then starting it back up and see what happens. Or just try a different ethernet adapter if you have one available.

Submitted by arjunbatra on Wed, 2020/05/06 - 09:35

#11

Michael, please find system messages attached for your review. It seems like I am using version 5.0.0. Will update to version 5.0.2 as suggested to see if it makes things better.

2020-05-04 17:13:53 INFO :VirtualHere Client 5.0.0 starting (Compiled: Apr 8 2020 14:30:18)
2020-05-04 17:13:53 INFO :Client OS is Windows 10 (build 18363), 64-bit edition
2020-05-04 17:13:53 INFO :Using config at C:\Users\TV\AppData\Roaming\vhui.ini
2020-05-04 17:13:53 INFO :IPC available at \\.\pipe\vhclient
2020-05-04 17:13:53 INFO :Auto-find (Bonjour) on
2020-05-04 17:13:53 INFO :Auto-find (Bonjour SSL) on
2020-05-04 17:14:57 INFO :Drivers are up-to-date
2020-05-04 17:14:57 INFO :Connected to the VirtualHere Client Driver (Version 2)
2020-05-04 17:50:47 INFO :Connection 1 receiving msg size didnt complete due to error 10054,
2020-05-04 17:50:48 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 1...
2020-05-04 17:51:47 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 2...
2020-05-04 17:51:47 INFO :Connection 2 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 18:06:17 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 3...
2020-05-04 18:06:17 INFO :Connection 3 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:05:23 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 4...
2020-05-04 19:05:23 INFO :Connection 4 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:08:14 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 5...
2020-05-04 19:08:14 INFO :Connection 5 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:08:30 INFO :Could not connect to 192.168.0.16:7575
2020-05-04 19:21:20 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 7...
2020-05-04 19:21:20 INFO :Connection 7 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:21:35 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 8...
2020-05-04 19:21:35 INFO :Connection 8 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:22:36 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 9...
2020-05-04 19:22:36 INFO :Connection 9 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:27:39 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 10...
2020-05-04 19:27:39 INFO :Connection 10 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:31:27 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 11...
2020-05-04 19:31:27 INFO :Connection 11 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:38:43 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 12...
2020-05-04 19:38:43 INFO :Connection 12 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:39:16 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 13...
2020-05-04 19:39:16 INFO :Connection 13 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:43:33 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 14...
2020-05-04 19:43:33 INFO :Connection 14 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:46:34 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 15...
2020-05-04 19:46:34 INFO :Connection 15 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:49:32 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 16...
2020-05-04 19:49:32 INFO :Connection 16 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:50:08 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 17...
2020-05-04 19:50:08 INFO :Connection 17 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:53:36 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 18...
2020-05-04 19:53:36 INFO :Connection 18 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:56:50 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 19...
2020-05-04 19:56:50 INFO :Connection 19 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-04 19:57:08 INFO :Server ping timeout, shutting down connection 20...
2020-05-04 19:57:08 INFO :Connection 20 socket closed (rx)
2020-05-05 19:33:00 INFO :This is Not the window targeted by this gesture!
2020-05-05 19:33:00 INFO :This is Not the window targeted by this gesture!
2020-05-05 19:33:00 INFO :This is Not the window targeted by this gesture!
2020-05-05 19:33:07 INFO :This is Not the window targeted by this gesture!
2020-05-05 19:33:07 INFO :This is Not the window targeted by this gesture!
2020-05-05 19:33:07 INFO :This is Not the window targeted by this gesture!

Submitted by arjunbatra on Wed, 2020/05/06 - 09:37

#12

Hi Grog, thank you for suggestion. I do have wifi adaptor on machine so will give that a try to see if it makes things better.

Another question for all, when I RDP into the client machine, system doesn’t let me use virtualhere keyboard until I log back in with keyboard connected to client machine. Anyway to work around it?