I have an old pc on which I run jellyfin and some other stuff. It’s only connected through lan. I used to use window’s remotedesktop to connect to it, but that stopped working.

Now I’m looking for a good remote desktop. Because it s tucked away in a corner, fysical acces to it is cumbersome.

My server runs mint with xfce. My laptop runs windows 11, because of work reasons.

I’m inclined to use something like anydesk, but I’m unsure how to trust that company.

Edit: I got rustdesk up and running and it’s a good solution for my usecase. Thanks for all the tips and suggestions.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    If you’re not comfortable using SSH, each Linux DE comes with its own RDP setup, so refer to the docs of whichever you’re running to set that up if you want things to be super simple.

    Past that, there’s tons of stuff, but I would generally avoid VNC these days because it’s pretty much a dead protocol that is insecure and inefficient.

    Some people prefer to use RDP compatible tools, some people just use Moonlight. You can use whatever is comfortable for you, really. I would avoid all the suggestions that are telling you to install the giant constructs like Mesh Central though. That’s overkill for just two machines here.

      • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        Sorry, are you asking about Moonlight specifically? I believe people use Sunshine for AMD acceleration. I wasn’t even generally recommending it for use as a Remote Desktop solution since it’s kind of overkill, just mentioning that some people use whatever tool will get the job done.

  • yamper@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    if you can afford the hardware, getting something dedicated like a JetKVM is nice because you don’t have to wait for VNC software to boot. since it acts like a monitor and keyboard, you can even enter BIOS with it. JetKVM sells an extension board that you could hook up to your server motherboard’s power buttons to turn it on/off too.

    for fully software solutions, i like using apollo on the server and moonlight on the clients. it’s built for game streaming, but it works for remote desktop too. i have apollo and moonlight installed on a bunch of my devices anyways so this saves me from installing an additional client most of the time.

  • eli@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Install Tailscale on all devices.

    Then ssh into whatever you need.

    If you need desktop remote access the Windows RDP should work for Windows to Windows machines.

    For Linux host to Windows client I’ve had good experiences with Remmina Desktop.

      • Decipher0771@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        Last I checked Tailscale is Canadian actually….but maybe they got bought out somewhere??

        • comrade_twisty@feddit.orgEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          My bad, sorry Canadians!

          I just read a thread on hackernews where a bunch of Europeans where switching to netbird because of migration away from US tech, so I guess that was a mistake on their part.

          • dudesss@lemmy.caEnglish
            0·
            4 months ago

            The Hackernews company gets shit on a lot by Lemmy and Reddit. From my understanding, they have a lot of bad people who run the company.

            I would just use Lemmy and Reddit instead.

    • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      I hate having to continuously point this out, but DO NOT DO THIS unless you have a deeper understanding of networking.

      “Just installing Tailscale” without proper configuration of the default routes is going to cause all kinds of routing inefficiencies and loopbacks in your internal network that is absolutely unnecessary, especially for what OP asking for.

      This is just bad advice.

        • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          3 months ago

          Well, firstly, it’s not what Tailscale is meant for. I’m getting downvoted by the people using the wrong tool for the wrong job.

          You don’t install a VPN on all your local machines just to talk to each other. That’s insane. You especially don’t install one that, while misconfigured, is sending all of its traffic OUTSIDE of your local network, then back in. This is what Tailscale on a number of local machines will do by default.

          The way Tailscale works is by installing a Wireguard client on a machine. It then checks in with their DERP servers to figure out it’s network situation (behind NAT, peers in the network, routing tables…etc). So when you have more than one client on the Tailscale network, it automagically assumes some things, the first being that these two machines dont have a more direct route to talk to each other.

          So then it will attempt to bridge a path between the DERP server each client is checked into, and pass traffic that way. Which means you then have two machines on the same local network sending traffic OUTSIDE of that network, then back in to complete a VPN network.

          This is stupid.

          You setup multiple different networks and use exit nodes to bridge two networks together with Tailscale. That’s the entire point. This means setting up routes to let the orchestration layer know that a set of certain machines exist in the same network, and shouldn’t use Tailscale to communicate with each other. Then it will only be using routes for REMOTE networks, where other clients exist, to pass traffic over the Tailscale network.

          May I ask what you were planning on doing with Tailscale? I can point you in the right direction.

          • yetanothersuperhero@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            3 months ago

            using it to talk to machines when I’m not on the local network!

            Are people really installing it for just local networked machines?

  • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    I use RustDesk because it’s good enough. It may not work for everything, but it is open source and has suited my needs.

    I have it launch on boot in Mint and it works fine

    • Mihies@programming.devEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      But does it allow login on machine and multi monitors like RDP does? These are two features I can’t live without (at least the former).

      • ShortN0te@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        It actually does both. Not really tested the multimonitor features but its there and it works, not sure if to the same degree as in rdp.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        May I ask a bit more?

        Can you launch on system start up as opposed to user, yes in my experience.

        Can you login when the user has not yet been logged in, yes in my experience so long as the program is launched by the system as a service and not a user login option.

        If the machine has multiple monitors, you may need to test, as I standardly use a phone (android) to remote to my desktop/laptop seveer environments where I can individually choose a monitor if they have more than 1 I believe, but having one screen on the phone, I don’t view both at the same time… nor would it be convenient…

        It’s a free 2 minute try it out really. The uninstall if you don’t like. If you really like it maybe consider hosting your own. But otherwise you can use it from their severs for free and it will remember your recent connections and passwords if you want on your local device…

        I feel like a salesperson for a free product lol

        Edit: I realized I asked no questions, did that answer yours?

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      RustDesk really is fantastic. No shade to any of the other solutions suggested in this thread, but 99% of the time when someone needs take desktop access, RustDesk is exactly what they need.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        Yeah I suppose I should have said what I’ve used it for but I think I’ve only really used it for Android, Linux, and I think I may have put it on Windows once, not sure. Overall I run into few circumstances I’ve ever needed to go the machine, usually it’s tied to bios/driver issues on the laptop I use for a server, not Rust issues

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        Exactly how I found it. Looking for open-source TeamViewer essentially.

        Works very well for the tasks I throw at it. Hosting it yourself is easy as well

  • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    I guess another vote for RustDesk. I use it to administer several personal computers that my friends have. They are old heads like me, but unlike me, their tech savvy is lacking. So if they have an issue, I can pop in and help in any way I can. I was using Remote Desktop Assistant for a while, but kept hearing about RustDesk so I gave it a go.

  • jabjoe@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    You sure you can’t do what you need from bash/ssh?

    If you only need ssh, anything can be terminal as everything has a ssh client.

  • rekabis@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    I like RustDesk. If you’re worried about connectivity, you can even run your own relay server.

  • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    I initially misread your question as “What good is remote desktop software?” and I thought, "look at this person, humble bragging that they are fit enough to occasionally walk across the room.

    I guess now I need to go exercise.

  • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Nomachine with local & Wireguard access only.

    I think Anydesk can be trusted as much as any company. They did notify users when a breach occurred a couple of years ago. By contrast Teamviewer was hacked and blamed their customer’s “password reuse” for years before finally admitted they had a breach. The company cannot be trusted.

    I use Anydesk occasionally to help friends but never leave it running if it’s not actively in use.

  • Brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    RDP (the same protocol Windows Remote Desktop uses) works fine on Linux. I’d suggest investigating why that suddenly stopped working for you.

    For what it’s worth Xrdp seems to work well on Linux for enabling a RDP Remote Desktop server… I suspect you are / were(?) already using Xrdp and just need to figure out why it stopped working.

    • abbadon420@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      Yes I was using xrdp, it is still installed and windows rdp can find it and connect. But once that happens, the applications crashes and shuts down…

  • s3rvant@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Another vote for Rustdesk

    I use it mostly for family tech support where MY PC is running Linux and THEY are on Windows though it works great in both directions