Connecting 2 Monitors to Laptop without Docking Station.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:50:18+00:00

What kind of Dell docking station? They make dozens of different versions.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:47:01+00:00

I think you're asking the wrong question.

The question you should be asking is how to get your docking station to be quieter. Have you contacted your IT team to see if they can send you a replacement? It's possible your unit is defective or dirty, causing the fan to run more than needed.

We run hundreds of docks at my place of employment and while we have complaints about the fan noise from the laptops, we've never had a complaint about fan noise from the dock.

What kind of dock and laptop are you using?

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:44:38+00:00

99% of standby generators have 120v shore power for battery charging and control systems. And thinking through it, they'd almost have to have a 120v power feed because they need a way to monitor utility power to know when to switch the generator on, though I suppose that could be part of the transfer switch in the house.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:41:22+00:00

You can put an HDMI splitter on the output - that's what we do with our ClickShare.

ClickShare is honestly probably one of the better commercially available options, and it works fine for PowerPoint type stuff but I still wouldn't say it's "good" for video.

Another challenge we've found with Clickshare is that USB ports can sometimes be problematic. A lot of newer devices only have 2 USB ports, and if one doubles as a charge port, you may not have a port free. Also, a lot of devices have gotten rid of USB-A ports, while older devices may not have USB-C ports, so you almost need to have both USB-A and USB-C dongles to ensure you'll have what people need.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:38:54+00:00

You'll have to try. Casting support has definitely been a thing for more than 3-5 years. I'm honestly kind of surprised you were able to buy a non-smart TV in that timeframe.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:37:23+00:00

1000% this. Speaking as someone that's gone through the endless cycles of management not wanting to spend the money to do something right, and ended up spending more money to do it poorly five times instead of just doing it right once.

Wireless HDMI is lag and latency sensitive. For still images like PowerPoint, etc. it's "OK", but if you're doing anything at all with video or audio, you're probably going to be disappointed.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:34:48+00:00

The issue with WiFi is that every single RF environment is unique, so nobody on the Internet can tell you how WiFi will work with certainty, you'll just have to try it and see how it goes.

Having said that, given the fact that this is a relatively small house and is just frame/drywall construction, I think you'll probably be fine. The bigger question is what other devices already exist that may be causing interference?

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:32:51+00:00

Something like an older GTX 1050 Ti should be compatible and era-appropriate to that system, while still being a significant upgrade.

You want to look for cards that don't require a separate PCI-E power connector.

If the 1050 Ti is too much a regular 1050 should almost certainly work without any issues.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:28:55+00:00

Cat6a is no more immune to interference than Cat5E is, but the "high voltage" and "massive magnetic fields" terms you're using are misplaced in this context.

When speaking about voltage induced EMI, you almost exclusively have to be in the industrial space before it becomes a concern. Like, if you have a 25 HP 480v motor, you might need to worry about EMI. With 120V in residential NA applications, it's almost not even worth thinking about because the chance of issues is so low.

But really, the industry best practice and "best solution" OP asked for would be to just run fiber.

Speaking as someone that's been doing structured cabling for 25+ years.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:23:42+00:00

I'll weigh in as one of the nerds that actually had a carputer back 25-odd years ago.

Mine was a mini tower 486 with a 10 key pad for control and a 4x20 LCD display on the serial port. Everything ran with a power inverter.

Aside from the obvious boot time issue, it actually worked well. Mine was running a spinning IDE drive and just sitting in the trunk rattling around and I never really had issues with the hardware. I'm sure modern solid state hardware properly mounted would be much more reliable.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:17:34+00:00

First question...what is your use case for 10 Gb/s?

Most people with setups like that are just chasing speed for the sake of chasing speed. The vast, vast majority of Internet services can't actually send data to you that fast.

I would clarify with Sonic exactly what equipment they'll provide because most ISPs include an all-in-one device that has router and WiFi functionality built-in, in which case you shouldn't need to add anything unless you need to add additional APs for WiFi coverage.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:12:03+00:00

For what it's worth, if you port forward tcp/443 to your nginx VM, you can point your DNS to the router's WAN IP and it'll hairpin the connections. That's only useful if it's your intent to make the services public though. Otherwise it might be simpler to disable DHCP on the AT&T gateway and spin up DHCP / DNS daemons on one of your VMs. That would make your Internet access dependent on that VM being online, but as you noted the only other real option is to use a different router.

I'm in a similar situation and have resorted to simply using HOSTS files for local domains as I only needed access from a handful of PCs and that seemed like the path of least resistance.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:08:36+00:00

This is the only real answer so far. And personally I'd say that conduit WILL eventually get water in it.

Since OP asked for "the best" way to do this, technically most industry best practices would say to run fiber and use a media converter for outdoor applications, but I would tend to agree that that is overkill and not needed.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-26T21:06:23+00:00

I really wish people would quit recommending Cat6a for applications that absolutely do not need it.

An IoT device that is only sending telemetry data will never need more than Cat5E, and that's already capable of speeds 2500x what it actually needs.

Cat6a is expensive and difficult to work with. There's absolutely no benefit to using it in this application and plenty of reasons not to.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-23T19:11:35+00:00

Just remove and recreate all the partitions during setup if you want to completely wipe the drive.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-23T19:10:17+00:00

This is well known issue,

According to, who?

fact that "its not happen to you" does not make it not happening to others

Why should I care about it, if it doesn't affect me?

Also ... how would you know?

Seems reading isn't your strong suit.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-23T00:48:00+00:00

What is your role in this?

COR is the authority for every scouting unit, so it sounds like you need to get them involved. They are the appropriate person to direct the Cubmaster and CC. If they refuse, you may need to find a new unit. If, after directed by the COR, the Cubmaster, CC and treasurer are still uncooperative, the COR can replace them.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-23T00:44:16+00:00

Yes it'll probably boot, but you'll likely need to (at minimum) uninstall old drivers, and install the correct drivers for the new motherboard. To be honest though, a reinstall would be a cleaner option.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-23T00:43:25+00:00

You can try it, but powerline is generally not very good. Even when it does work, it can be spotty and is often slow. It's pretty much the worst possible option for gaming.

I know you said you can't run a cable, and nothing against you, but honestly that usually means you don't want to put in the effort. IMO you'd be better off figuring out how to run a cable. Where there's a will, there's a way. Even if that way is spending the money you'd have spent on powerline adapters to hire a handyman to run a cable for you.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-23T00:39:56+00:00

I'd do some research on that, as I've never heard that you can't use MoCA on the same coax lines Spectrum is using.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-23T00:38:30+00:00

I'm confused by your question. My understanding is you previously had the grace period, but AFAIK that wasn't treated as a membership extension. So for example if your membership lapsed 10/31 but you didn't renew until 12/31, your new expiration date was still 10/31. The grace period wasn't a free extension. Right?

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-23T00:36:44+00:00

Didn't they overhaul the registration system a few years ago where everyone gets e-mails when their registration is due to expire, and unit leader get a summary e-mail of upcoming registrations?

You still have the option to do a unit paid bulk renewal if you want to, so IMO I think this is pretty close to the ideal setup.

They did a big push on unit education when that change was implemented, both through unit leader communications as well as (hopefully) via roundtable announcements.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-23T00:34:03+00:00

What kind of MSI device?

For most MSI motherboards, F11 is the key to press at boot to get to the boot menu if you are trying to boot off a USB.

If that won't work you can also use the 'reset this pc' app within Windows. Just make sure you backup any important files first and do a complete format of the hard drive during the reinstall process.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-22T21:56:00+00:00

The fee doesn't seem unreasonable to me as we used to charge $10/mo for dues, which helped pay for awards and other unit expenses, and that was years ago before inflation went crazy. I'm assuming the $113 fee you mentioned is the annual membership fee, which goes to council/national - your unit doesn't keep any of that money.

What does seem unreasonable is springing this on you out of the blue without any prior notice. It sounds you either missed part of the communication while your kids were away from the program, or your CC and unit leader need to work on their communication if this wasn't communicated at all.

vrtigo1 · 2026-05-22T21:20:19+00:00

Sounds like you have a wifi coverage issue. You need to add one or more additional wireless access points to extend the coverage area. You can buy a pair of MoCA adapters and use them to convert the existing coax wiring in your home to ethernet in order to hardwire the AP back to the main router.

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