18
votes
Suggest a remote desktop program?
TL:DR: Need a remote desktop program that will let me get into my desktop from another network with no action required at the desktop itself.
Will be out of town for about two weeks, have a Windows 10 desktop and a Windows 10 tablet. Desktop stays home, tablet is going with me in case I need something from my desktop. Need a way to connect and access and control my desktop from the tablet (I'll have KBM with me) with no interaction at the desktop itself (most remote desktop programs require confirmation at the desktop to access and/or gain control).
Suggestions? FOSS preferred.
I adore RustDesk. I use it within my home all the time, but it also works outside of the network as well (you can even use it from a phone!).
It might require an initial confirmation (I can’t remember), but after that you can log in and out easily without using the target computer at all.
EDIT: Please see @creesch’s comment below
Just so you know, RustDesk has had some controversial things going on in the past:
The issue with the root certificate has been addressed since then, but the lack of transparency about things remains.
What people do with this is up to them of course, I just wanted to place this note.
As someone who’s not technical enough to know how to interpret all of this but also doesn’t want malware on my computers (obviously), is there an actual fire underneath this smoke? Should I stop using RuskDesk?
I like it primarily for ease of use, but if there’s another comparable option that’s more trustworthy, I’d just as well go with that instead. Guess I’ll be looking at the recommendations in this topic as well!
I'm a pretty seasoned security professional, but I haven't looked into Rustdesk specifically at all.
My charitable interpretation of the above links (and the general vibe I got from perusing the website and repo briefly) is that the developer isn't really building Rustdesk as a "high quality" application. It reads more like a proof of concept, student project, or something similar.
The less charitable interpretation is that this is one of many many attempts by Chinese nation state actors to gain some level of control into as many computer systems as possible.
It is difficult to tell if at this moment there is anything going on. At best, we are simply dealing with a developer who is not good at communication, is maybe a bit bone headed but doesn't have any bad intentions.
But, generally I try to avoid software where there is more than a single incident.
The bad news is that there isn't really a good alternative either. Certainly not open source and commercially teamviewer also has done a bunch of shady stuff in recent years.
At least as far as access from outside your home goes. I wish I had a better alternative at hand, but sometimes there simply isn't any.
I appreciate the feedback (and your initial warning).
You mentioned there not being a better option for out-of-home access — does that mean there is a better one for in-home? I don’t really ever use it outside my house (the only time I did was simply to see if I could or not).
I mean within your network there are a lot more options. If you are all windows good old-fashioned RDP can already work. Personally I like using Moonlight in combination with Sunshine. A bit of history there, Moonlight is a client originally written to act with Nvidia's remote desktop thing for gaming. Nvidia announced it would no longer be available and Sunshine basically stepped in to replace the Nvidia part.
Steam link is also pretty good, though a little more trouble if you want to access your desktop rather than game.
I got Sunshine+Moonlight set up on my machines. Super easy! A little less "smooth" than RustDesk to get up and running, but I'm going to yield to you and other experts when it comes to trust and replace RustDesk with it instead.
I appreciate all the help and insight, creesch. Thank you very much!
Double posting to say that, after using them for just one afternoon yesterday, I already like Sunshine+Moonlight better than RustDesk.
I fiddled with some settings, and now I’m getting way better quality picture with less input lag than I was with RustDesk. It honestly looks clear enough and feels responsive enough to be mistaken for native most of the time.
I’m now glad I made the switch not just from a trust perspective, but from an actual user experience one.
Thank you again!
You are welcome! Glad you are enjoying it so much and yeah I agree about it feeling almost native.
I have used it in the past with my phone connected to a portable display and barely could tell the difference.
Okay, I know I've been spamming you a lot, creesch. This is the last post, I promise! I'm just SUPER pumped about this. One more update:
With how good Sunshine & Moonlight was looking after I tweaked some settings, I was like, why not go for broke and see what happens? I've got a decent router, right? 120 FPS and max bitrate!
I fully expected this to make it choke, and I'd have to incrementally dial down the settings to find out where the "sweet spot" is for maximum performance.
Except, that didn't happen. Sun+Moon said "No problem!" and just did the damn thing. Flawlessly. It genuinely feels 100% native now. I was remoted in to my TVPC to install a game, forgot that I was remoted in, and just started surfing Tildes like normal. It was tens of minutes before I realized I wasn't actually "on" my current machine.
I also learned that it beats Steam Remote Play at its own game. I often stream Steam games from my beefier TVPC to my older, significantly more lightweight laptop. It works well enough, but a lot of times it's very obvious that I'm streaming with artifacting and blurry low-res video and whatnot.
Well, my new celestial best friends are now handling the streaming at that aforementioned 120 FPS and maximum bitrate. The picture is SO smooth and crystal clear! I'm blown away by how well it works. Even games feel native! I had no idea streaming could be this good.
So, for a final time, thank you! I'm so glad you gave me the warning that spurred me to move off RustDesk and the pointer towards S&M instead. (okay, maybe that's a bad way to abbreviate them 🤣)
Windows has Remote Desktop built in. You merely need to enable it. I don’t know what the current procedure is for 11 and they paywall it between versions so if you have their “cheap edition” it may not be an option, but IIRC most versions have it now. Windows does not have a client built in though, so you will need to download an RDP client. Microsoft’s is the horribly named “Windows App”.
They don’t include any cloud features so you will need to do some setup if you want to access it from outside of the local network.
The classic Microsoft RDP client still comes bundled with Windows 11, and has even continued to get improvements. Windows App is only necessary on macOS.
fwiw its kinda janky if you want to actually remote into a computer seamlessly as it locks the target workstation and you'll need to log back in when you get home. there is some registry hack i found that let you have multiple logged in users at the same time, but i could never get it to work right.
also i thought the "remote desktop connection" program was packaged with windows directly, thats the one i always used for testing setups between pc>laptop. i only needed a third party program for android or web version tests.
but yeah i think technically everything should be doable with windows built in for them, set up a duckdns to avoid needing to remember an ip/ in case it changes while theyre away too and then all theyd need to do is make it works over the internet by connecting to anyname.duckdns.org and seeing if the windows client likes it.
The fact that it locks out the local user is a plus in my book. It means that if I’m using my computer, it’s only going to be me. But I can understand why people wouldn’t want that.
I realize this isn't the best answer, and it relies on an evil corporation, but maybe for a short term use case like you have this might be ok.
https://remotedesktop.google.com/
I have used this in the past for a quick fix to get to a computer and it seemed reliable and worked fairly well. It doesn't require a bunch of extra work, and you can access from outside your network automatically. You can just delete the software when you get home and be done.
This is what I use too, it works perfectly for my casual use though it can get bricked if the computer has to restart.
Also it works perfectly fine using mobile phone to control PC, many times saved me few minutes going to laptop.
I second @kfwyre's recommendation for RustDesk. That's where I would start.
If that doesn't work though, apparently some combination of Steam's Remote Play feature and Steam Link (software) can be used as a remote desktop solution. That's what I would try next.
If neither of those work, then in the past I have used:
Parsec. Proprietary, but easy to set up
Moonlight and Sunshine. Open-source, but I've never tried them outside my local network, so not sure what extra steps there are (if any) to get that working. If you do need a way to "tunnel" to your host from the outside, Tailscale would probably be the easiest way to set that up. Moonlight/Sunshine also apparently support the Steam Link (hardware), if you happen to have one of those still.
Some pro-tips for getting all of this to work reliably and without surprises:
I shuffle between FreeRDP and NoMachine. It might also be worth trying out Xpra.
FreeRDP is pretty amazing but there are a couple annoying bugs like clipboard syncing isn't working for me but it might work for you. NoMachine is a bit more reliable but it is not FOSS... you could check out X2Go which is similar to NoMachine.
edit: Ah your platform is Windows. I would just use RDP. It really is state of the art imho. Use Tailscale to handle the networking and use the built-in
mstscIf you're just worried about the network, Tailscale is an easy way to connect to your home PC, which can help if you're dealing with a dynamic IP. Once turned on / logged in on both PCs, they will behave as if on the same network, making any remote desktop program easy to set up - I just use Windows remote desktop connection for connecting to Windows from Windows. You can also configure Tailscale to let you use your home PC's Internet connection.
Assuming you have a static IP and can set up port forwarding on your router, you could just write down your IP and connect directly that way, however.
I've been using Jump Desktop for at least a few years now. It's free for Windows machines, but if you want to access Apple computers (or access any device from an iOS device), you have to pay. It's worked great for me. Definitely a step up from TeamViewer (even with unattended access). Though Jump Desktop isn't FOSS.
Long-term IT person here. I know you said FOSS preferred, but in my experience none of those options are without issues, and it's very difficult to troubleshoot when AFK.
I use https://www.splashtop.com/ for the systems under my management, and have for several years. It Just Works, and you can set it up easily for easy tablet-based access. Yes, it does cost money, but again, it works without issue. You don't have to think about configuring anything on your network, on either end. Install client, install streamer, done.
I use Splashtop in combination with Tailscale without having to pay, though I'll say it's not exactly something I feel super confident in to say I wouldn't have an issue on some occasion trying to access remotely.
Sometimes it will tell me that I can only use the free version on a local network and won't let me connect over Tailscale but I think I've just closed the app and reopened it or restarted my phone in one or two cases and in another case I couldn't get it to work at all I think because I had put my computer to sleep rather than powering it down first. I generally shut my PC down but that was one rare circumstance where I used sleep instead.
I also hook my PC up to a smart plug so I could force power cycle as another moonshot to correct an issue remotely. I have wake-on-lan enabled and it can be used when the PC is shut down and I have other devices on the network so I can use the Splashtop client to send the magic packet remotely.
I got splashtop when it first came out back in what had to be the late 00s since it was great for iOS to windows remote access. But over the years I found the service to be sluggish and terrible and they split their product into a bunch of different smaller ones it got confusing.
I switched to TeamViewer for quite a while but then I found AnyDesk and that’s what I use from now on.
I noticed AnyDesk didn’t show up in any recs here so it’s making me a little suspicious.
I played with Parsec as well but it seemed to be a bit unreliable.
I've gone through just about every major Remote Desktop system myself. I first went to Splashtop after GotomyPC went nuts with their pricing, and it was a little rough at first, but ever since their newer-gen client (about 1.5 years old, now, IIRC) Splashtop has continued to be the best I've used. Their ever-finer product segmentation is a little annoying, but they let me keep my grandfathered 250-unit plan without complaint, so I haven't really had to worry about it. The only real add-on I use is multi-monitor support. Everything else is just fine with the basic defaults.