Submitted 3 weeks ago by Zonefive@sh.itjust.works to selfhosted@lemmy.world
I have three networked Win10/11 PCs at our small family business that occasionally need to be accessed and maintained from my Fedora PC at home. I’ve used Google Remote Desktop for a while but it’s unreliable and also F Google.
Was looking at the Gl-Inet Comet products which look promising as they say they work without cloud access, but they’re a tad spendy. If it’s the best option I’m willing to drop the coin.
Are there better options?
Thanks!
RustDesk is great, you can run the server on your own hardware, and set up the clients for unattended access. No need for a VPN, as long as all clients on both ends can find your server.
RustDesk is a great option too for just Remote Access. Though I find it’s performance a bit slow, and with VPN I can use any tool I need same as on the LAN (my workflow is unchanged).
I do use RustDesk for the adhoc situations (friend needs help/new machine, etc). It’s faster to setup for ad-hoc support vs adding a Tailscale client.
Also check out meshcentral. Important thing aboout meshcentral is that it lets you hijack the users screen, show you can show them step by step through things. RDP doesn’t do that, it kicks the other user out.
Lots of good alternatives advice already here but I have a couple comets and they work pretty well! They don’t require cloud access except for updates if you want them, I think it has Tailscale built in as well. Their newest one has an HDMI pass through as well which is handy in some situations. I have the PoE version of the other one and it works the same way, the power control kits work too! I also have a jet KVM and it’s fine, I like the comet better I think! They have also open sourced their cloud thing so you can centrally manage them all, it’s pretty neat!
You’ll need port forwarding to expose RDP yo the internet
No. Do NOT do this. RDP isn’t designed for the internet, it’s a security hole, even more so in a small business where they aren’t going to use advanced security (2FA, certs, etc).
Remote access should always be over a secure connection, such as a VPN.
I really shouldn’t be giving advice when I’m sleep-deprived like this.
Removed,
Nope, bad idea.
Sounds more like what you need is a combination of a VPN and RDP. Have your machines connect to somewhere via whichever VPN protocol you prefer, and then you can access them via whichever protocol you prefer.
I’m old and crusty, so I mostly use openvpn, but wireguard will probably do as well.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| IP | Internet Protocol |
| VNC | Virtual Network Computing for remote desktop access |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network |
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Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 3 weeks ago
Install Tailscale on all the machines and you’re set.
Alternatively Hamachi.
irmadlad@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Ding!
gooeyglob@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Or Netbird, Aboth work very well and Netbird can be completely self hosted; Tailscale requires Headscale AFAIK.
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 3 weeks ago
Ooh, I’d forgotten about Netbird!
Thanks for the reminder to test it as an alternative to Tailscale.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I was gonna suggest WireGuard but these are probably less work which is what a business wants.
Another bonus is you have more than just Remote Desktop to manage things.
Zonefive@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Amaze! I’m super excited to give this a try. If it works as described this will probably do everything I need it to. Thanks!