Steam On 2 Home PCs

Dirk Diggler · 13 Sep 2014 at 14:50

Is it possible to have Steam games running on 2 PC's at once if the PC's are on the same network? Or offline?

Son and Daughter want to play different games on their PC's.

d_brennen · 13 Sep 2014 at 14:54

Mad idea I know, but have you tried it? Pretty sure you can both be playing the same game, that would be very silly of Valve

Dirk Diggler · 13 Sep 2014 at 14:56

Yes, I tried it and got a message telling me the 1st PC would have to be signed out in order for me to continue. It was a different game I was selecting.

DaleTheWhale · 13 Sep 2014 at 14:56

Yes, me and my brother used to this when I was living at home.
Me and my girlfriend now do this at our flat.

Why shouldn't it be possible?

Reading your reply, you can't use the same account...

Dirk Diggler · 13 Sep 2014 at 14:56

ThaReaperGuy said:
Yes, me and my brother used to this when I was living at home.
Me and my girlfriend now do this at our flat.

Why shouldn't it be possible?

See post above.

Dirk Diggler · 13 Sep 2014 at 15:03

Definitely having none of it. I keeps forcing me to log out of the other PC if I try to launch a game on the current one.

I can't see how this can be right, if I bought 10 games surely I can play more than one at once?

d_brennen · 13 Sep 2014 at 15:09

http://store.steampowered.com/promotion/familysharing

Set up sharing

Dirk Diggler · 13 Sep 2014 at 15:14

d_brennen said:
http://store.steampowered.com/promotion/familysharing

Set up sharing

I knew it had to be simple! I take it I need to create 2 separate accounts?

Thanks man.

DaleTheWhale · 13 Sep 2014 at 15:24

From the FAQ:

Can two users share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

Dirk Diggler · 13 Sep 2014 at 16:02

ThaReaperGuy said:
From the FAQ:

Can two users share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

Yea, just realised this wasn't the answer. It seems it's one game at a time.

DaleTheWhale · 13 Sep 2014 at 16:13

The best you can do is try the offline trick.

Set one in offline mode & then disconnect the internet completely.
Launch the account on the other PC in online mode.

Dirk Diggler · 13 Sep 2014 at 16:14

ThaReaperGuy said:
The best you can do is try the offline trick.

Set one in offline mode & then disconnect the internet completely.
Launch the account on the other PC in online mode.

Will give that a bash...

Amnesia · 13 Sep 2014 at 16:59

just unplug your ethernet cable once your in game

Jarrastafari · 13 Sep 2014 at 19:43

ThaReaperGuy said:
The best you can do is try the offline trick.

Set one in offline mode & then disconnect the internet completely.
Launch the account on the other PC in online mode.

I used to do this so me and my brother could play counter strike LAN against bots

Witcher1979 · 13 Sep 2014 at 20:03

Just set one machine with same account to offline mode then you can play all your games, just can't play online. You don't need to disconnect any cables, I never have. The machine signed in can play online though. Map a network drive to your main PC so your offline machine can play over your network. As said above you can even play lan like this, but you do not need to remove any cables or disconnect the internet any other way, just put steam in offline mode on one machine.

Dirk Diggler · 13 Sep 2014 at 20:36

Thanks for the replies guys, offline mode on the second pc seems to be doing the trick.

Jack Bauer · 13 Sep 2014 at 20:51

I had the same problem and in the end I just got two accounts for the kids. Put sharing on both and get two copies of thing as they become cheap (humble bundle is great for this) and there is rarely a problem.