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Show HN: P2P remote desktop – an alternative to TeamViewer / AnyDesk

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Re: Show HN: P2P remote desktop – an alternative to TeamViewer / AnyDesk

#21
post #5

This is one thing I'm surprised the open source community hasn't developed a popular alternative for: Teamviewer. The core idea is simple: a video stream from one computer to another, with mouse and keyboard controls sent the other way. Connection negotiation can be done Magic Wormhole style, via basic STUN, encryption can be done in a number of ways. Add some clipboard and P2P file transfer features and you've got m…

MeshCentral is really good and open-source https://github.com/Ylianst/MeshCentral

It pairs well with Tactical RMM https://github.com/wh1te909/tacticalrmm

Re: Show HN: P2P remote desktop – an alternative to TeamViewer / AnyDesk

#22
post #6

Am I the only one that has long since given up traditional desktop streaming software like TeamViewer/AnyDesk and the like for game streaming software (Parsec, Rainway, Steam Remote Play, etc) that just happen to offer desktop streaming because they can? The actual streaming tech in those feels worlds ahead in terms of quality/efficiency/stability/latency. And the UX has generally felt better as well with much more s…

Parsec, to be fair, directly targets remote desktop usage as it's core feature set nowadays (business-wise).

But yeah, definitely. Parsec is far, far superior to TeamViewer et al.

Re: Show HN: P2P remote desktop – an alternative to TeamViewer / AnyDesk

#23
post #5

This is one thing I'm surprised the open source community hasn't developed a popular alternative for: Teamviewer. The core idea is simple: a video stream from one computer to another, with mouse and keyboard controls sent the other way. Connection negotiation can be done Magic Wormhole style, via basic STUN, encryption can be done in a number of ways. Add some clipboard and P2P file transfer features and you've got m…

What does the open source angle add to compete with the existing offerings? From what I can tell they are free for personal use and businesses pay, as you suggest. I’m not too familiar with these products.

The same Gitlab offers: the ability to customize and configure the system the way you want it, and the ability to patch the system even when the vendor stops supporting it if you're intent to. It also adds a small factor of trust because you can see the server code; there's probably important, private files flowing through the relay servers, after all.

The rates for decent remote support software are terrible. For €150 per month, you can use three simultaneous connections across your entire organization, limited to a certain number of users who might possibly use the system. Teamviewer once offered lifetime licenses, but then they inserted ads for their subscription model into the lifetime customers to get even more money out of them.

Re: Show HN: P2P remote desktop – an alternative to TeamViewer / AnyDesk

#24
post #6

Am I the only one that has long since given up traditional desktop streaming software like TeamViewer/AnyDesk and the like for game streaming software (Parsec, Rainway, Steam Remote Play, etc) that just happen to offer desktop streaming because they can? The actual streaming tech in those feels worlds ahead in terms of quality/efficiency/stability/latency. And the UX has generally felt better as well with much more s…

Parsec doesn't support remoting into a Linux machine, so that was the dealbreaker for me.

Re: Show HN: P2P remote desktop – an alternative to TeamViewer / AnyDesk

#25
post #22
post #6

Am I the only one that has long since given up traditional desktop streaming software like TeamViewer/AnyDesk and the like for game streaming software (Parsec, Rainway, Steam Remote Play, etc) that just happen to offer desktop streaming because they can? The actual streaming tech in those feels worlds ahead in terms of quality/efficiency/stability/latency. And the UX has generally felt better as well with much more s…

Parsec, to be fair, directly targets remote desktop usage as it's core feature set nowadays (business-wise). But yeah, definitely. Parsec is far, far superior to TeamViewer et al.

If I've got 350 desktops to manage, is there a console/dashboard for doing that with Parsec? The pricing page looks like they want you to manage a small team or go 'Enterprise', which is 'Call for pricing', which automatically makes me think I'll be wasting time.

Re: Show HN: P2P remote desktop – an alternative to TeamViewer / AnyDesk

#26
post #5

This is one thing I'm surprised the open source community hasn't developed a popular alternative for: Teamviewer. The core idea is simple: a video stream from one computer to another, with mouse and keyboard controls sent the other way. Connection negotiation can be done Magic Wormhole style, via basic STUN, encryption can be done in a number of ways. Add some clipboard and P2P file transfer features and you've got m…

Code signing for Windows is a pain for anything self hosted. I tried every open source, self-hosted option I could find last week and none of it was usable. IIRC the only one that had signed executables was Remotely and it was a 150MB client that bundles .NET. All the rest seem to copy the terrible design of on demand code signing and that doesn’t work. If you get an EV certificate for instant SmartScreen reputation…

SmartScreen becomes less of a pain when people start downloading the software more. In fact, if you don't have a lot of downloads, SmartScreen will block your executable even if you pay for the privilege of signing your executables! If you sign your executable + config files on the fly, you end up with SmartScreen warnings all over the shop!

A possible solution would be to distribute the client through something like the Windows Store on Windows, and a URL connection handler. The support-receiving website (or intranet support page) could work by opening a URL like remote-support://internal.domain.eu/listen from a web page and if that fails, link to the Windows Store and install directions instead. An unsigned, backup download of unsigned executables can be added to that download page if you so desire.

Theoretically, you could also set up some kind of DHT or TOR-like network where nodes can just find each other. You wouldn't want to send standard Bittorrent or TOR traffic without warning in corporate networks, of course, but the technology exists.

For businesses, the unsigned executable with config could just be distributed by the IT department with their own certificate or the necessary exemptions, and launch an autoconnect daemon, if necessary.

The _real_ challenge, I think, for building such a tool is that if it works well, scammers will use it and slander your product. Some might even patch out any warnings or alerts that you add to protect innocent people from scams. Scammers aren't intelligent enough to make their own RAT, but just one tech-savvy criminal could make loads of money with some slight modifications.

Re: Show HN: P2P remote desktop – an alternative to TeamViewer / AnyDesk

#27

@mp85, I don't think your MIT license is compatible with AForge.NET's LGPL license. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm guessing your license should also become LGPL.

The LGPL is compatible with pretty much all licenses, even proprietary ones. Also the MIT license is GPL compatible and compatible with pretty much all licenses too.

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#Expat

Re: Show HN: P2P remote desktop – an alternative to TeamViewer / AnyDesk

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does the open source angle add to compete with the existing offerings? From what I can tell they are free for personal use and businesses pay, as you suggest. I’m not too familiar with these products.

The same Gitlab offers: the ability to customize and configure the system the way you want it, and the ability to patch the system even when the vendor stops supporting it if you're intent to. It also adds a small factor of trust because you can see the server code; there's probably important, private files flowing through the relay servers, after all. The rates for decent remote support software are terrible. For €1…

[Not open source, but] Liteviewer has been the best of what I could find for running a tiny pseudo-MSP on the side. Despite their site looking like it was ported from Geocities, the app itself has been pretty solid for my basic uses, and ~30 machines are free, I believe. I'm not affiliated.

http://www.litemanager.com/produkts/LiteManagerFree/

Re: Show HN: P2P remote desktop – an alternative to TeamViewer / AnyDesk

#29
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parsec, to be fair, directly targets remote desktop usage as it's core feature set nowadays (business-wise). But yeah, definitely. Parsec is far, far superior to TeamViewer et al.

If I've got 350 desktops to manage, is there a console/dashboard for doing that with Parsec? The pricing page looks like they want you to manage a small team or go 'Enterprise', which is 'Call for pricing', which automatically makes me think I'll be wasting time.

No. It's meant for giving user's access to their personal (physical, not VDI) desktop or for giving access to a pool of physical desktops to people to share.

It competes with RDP more than TeamViewer.

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