Jan Ouwens

“Java juggler”

2 minute read

For the past four years or so, I’ve been packing a Chromecast whenever I went on vacation with my family, hoping to be able to get it to work. It’s nice to be able to watch an episode or two of Bluey with our daughter when she’s tired from swimming and needs to chill for a bit. But usually, tvs in vacation homes only show linear tv and have no streaming capabilities. A Chromecast, in theory, can fix that, but connecting it to wifi is harder than it seems.

A crude drawing of a tv with a legally-safe knock-off Bluey, standing on a beach with a parasol, with a Chromecast connected to an extension cord that leads off-screen

These are the lessons that I learned the hard way.

  • Vacation home requirements
    • The vacation home must, of course, offer wifi. Otherwise it’s an instant game-over.
    • The tv must not be embedded in a wall panel. If the HDMI ports aren’t reachable, you can’t connect the Chromecast.
  • Prepare at home
    • Make sure you have a modern Chromecast with a remote control, and that the remote is paired with the Chromecast before you leave. You don’t want to have to operate the Chromecast with your phone, because that requires wifi. If the vacation home wifi has a captive portal, you’ll end up in a chicken-and-egg situation where you need a phone to connect to the wifi, and you need the wifi to connect to the phone.
    • Don’t forget to pack the remote!
    • Install a browser on the Chromecast, if it doesn’t have one already. Vacation home wifi often has a captive portal where you need to check a box to agree to the terms and conditions. Chromecasts don’t have a browser pre-installed, so you can’t access that captive portal by default. I went with BrowseHere, but any browser will do. (You can also do this via a hotspot in the vacation home, but doing it before you go is much easier.)
    • Pack an extension cord. Sometimes the power outlets are tucked away behind a panel of some kind for reasons both aesthetic and tinker-proof. An extension cord gives you a little extra flexibility and range.

With these conditions met, you should be able to connect your Chromecast to the wifi. When connected, you should be able to access the captive portal via the wifi settings. Use the remote to navigate to any checkboxes that need checking, and to any buttons that need pressing.

Another thing that became apparent after a few days is that you may get logged out (while still connected to the wifi!) If that happens, you have to go back into the wifi settings and do the captive portal login dance again.

Enjoy Bluey!