It’s hard to decide which cross-platform remote-access software to choose these days.
I have been using TeamViewer to access my father’s Windows desktop (he lives too far from me to be able to go visit when he has a problem).
TeamViewer is a superb product. Unfortunately, every so often it decides that I’m using it for commercial reasons and blocks me (even though I use it strictly for my father). It’s a pain to get it unblocked again.
I would like to find a free alternative (FLOSS if possible but that’s not required).
I have seen recommended:
RustDesk. Apparently, this needs to be self-hosted as the public server is crowded (so I’ve read). I am hardly an expert on this; if you tell me that self-hosting is actually dead easy to set up, I’ll be happy to give it a try. (What would I use as a host? Can I use my website host?)
Chrome Remote Desktop. Although this works, in practice my father and I found it hard to connect, and lacking in features.
HelpWire. When I tested this, it was quite lacking in features, and not that straightforward for my father to allow connection.
There are probably others that I haven’t found. What would you recommend based on your personal experience?
I would be connecting from my Ubuntu 24.04 desktop to my father’s Windows 11 laptop.
I’ve Googled “simple remote desktop” and found nothing. I tried to find it in both Windows and the Ubuntu App Centre, and again found nothing.
Thank you for the suggestion.
I now realise that you meant “Remote Desktop Connection” in Windows.
Unfortunately, according to Microsoft, “a Remote Desktop server (as in, the PC that you are connecting to) needs to be running a Pro edition of Windows.” My father doesn’t have Pro.
I can connect two computers only if I’m on the same local router. If they are on a separate internet connection, I cannot connect. The IP address that NoMachine shows for me to connect to isn’t the actual IP address for the machine, but a router one (192.168.n.n), so obviously that doesn’t work over the internet.
I can’t use the “machine id” that NoMachine generates and puts on its public server, because to use that, I have to have a paid subscription. The price is too high for something that I use occasionally just to help my father and no other reason.
It’s unfortunate, because NoMachine looks reasonably good.
Thanks, David. That one also has a paid subscription and a free tier, similar to TeamViewer. I’m trying to stay away from that model if possible. If I can’t find an alternative, I’ll look at AnyDesk.
There is a way around this, if you use a vpn like Tailscale. I use it, to ssh directly to machines in different locations, including my desktop at home, and laptop in the office. Each machine gets an IP address in addition to the existing 192.168.n.n, which is accessible to any other machine on your “tailnet”.
Thanks for the idea, Alan. Unfortunately, I’m terribly unfamiliar with VPNs (in a practical sense), and trying to get one working between my father’s Windows machine and my Ubuntu machine will probably take too much of my time learning how to do it, never mind setting it up.
I haven’t managed yet to test what Leo suggested, as I haven’t had time today, but I’ll get to it soon enough.
Tailscale is super-super easy to set up. Honestly. Install it your end,
Install it on your machine, sign up (remembering user/pass).
Get your machine added to the network.
Get your dad to download Tailscale at his end, on Windows, and install it.
Get your dad to launch tailscale, and then tell him to join your network (the instructions say how).
You login to Tailscale and “approve” his machine.
Wait a few seconds, and both machines will ‘feel’ like they’re on the same network.
Another plus for Tailscale. I use it for my work as well as home.
There is a tremendous amount of power, but it just kind of works out of the box if you don’t need any special features.
The one ‘gotcha’ could be if you don’t set up a Subnet Router, you will need to use the Tailscalee IP address to access nodes on the other side. Tailscale IP’s typically start with 100.x.x.x.
When I get to the point in the instructions to set the service port for the UPnP, when I tick the box, NoMachine thinks for several seconds and then clears the box. It won’t keep it ticked.
Could this be because my Windows machine is in a VM? I’m using VirtualBox, and I’ve tried both NAT and Bridged Adapter.
When using NAT, the IP address that NoMachine displays is one that I don’t recognise (it is unrelated to either my router or my actual IP address). However, the Server Status displays an IP address beginning with 10.
When using Bridged Adapter, NoMachine shows no IP address, whereas the Server Status displays an IP address beginning with 192.168 (my local router).
I’m hardly an expert in all of this, so I don’t know what I might be doing wrong.
I’ll take the next step of installing Tailscale to see if that helps, but it could be a few hours before I get time again. I’ll report back here unless you reply before then.