Here’s the deal! I have a desktop computer with W10 that I want to do Folding@home on during the winter. The problem is I’ll be in Portugal this winter and my desktop is in Norway. I have Manjaro (KDE) on my laptop and I’m looking for a way that I can remote into my desktop if for some reason it stops folding. I’m not the most tech savvy but I’m a fast learner, hoping the community have some suggestions for me.
Remote desktop on Win-OS uses RDP (IIRC!) Search the software centre for relevant packages.
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First, find a RDP (remote desktop protocol) client for linux and get it connecting to the windows pc on the same network (hint: configure windows to allow remote desktop connections).
Then setup tailscale vpn clients on both laptop and pc so you can connect from anywhere.
Don’t forget to change the windows power settings so it never goes to sleep.
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If you want to do so and you’ll be away for months I think that an IP KVM would be what you’re looking for. Such a device would even let you get into the BIOS to troubleshoot your system. But, if it locks up and you’re just logging in through a screen sharing software, you’re done.
I doubt that accessing the BIOS will be necessary. It’s just folding so it’s not really the end of the world if it stops. Nothing important is running on it besides that.
I’ll be looking into what @mharsch suggests
There are lots of ways the remote machine can become stuck/unavailable that would require physical access to recover. An IP KVM does provide a solution to some of these, but it also requires it’s own setup and management, so it’s a tradeoff.
If it doesn’t really matter to you if you lose access (or if you have someone you can call to poke at the remote machine) then I’d say keep the solution as simple as possible.
If you do need full remote management capability for just one machine, you might check out the Pi KVM v3 project.
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I would shy away from anything that manages your firewall rules automatically. It’s may be using UPnP to open firewall ports on your router and that is just a disaster waiting to happen IMO. That is how people end up with webcams in their bedrooms and not know about it.
They may be doing it in a relatively safe way (for example they close the ports on uninstall, or on exit), but if you decide to stop using it, it crashes or you don’t uninstall cleanly as intended and they don’t have the chance to do some housekeeping, you router is not going to close the ports just like that.
Teamviewer, AnyDesk or some other software may be a safer option if you don’t feel like figuring out firewalls.
tailscale doesn’t poke holes in your router/firewall. It uses WireGuard to implement an overlay network connecting all machines that you install the client on.
Here’s a good write-up if you’re interested.
Ah, OK, that sounds better. Much better in fact.
They should probably remove the first thing you see on their website:
Zero config VPN. Installs on any device in minutes, manages firewall rules for you, and works from anywhere.
After seeing “manages firewall rules for you”, I just went NOPE.