Ask HN: Free alternative to Teamviewer? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Free alternative to Teamviewer?

#31

Post by rrr_oh_man » Thu, Apr 11, 2024, 2:35 PM UTC

ahofmann wrote: post #24

incahoots wrote: post #22

I’m a fan of RustDesk for my IT consulting needs. https://rustdesk.com/

This was downvoted, why?

Maybe because of that stupid screaming warning banner on the website:

WARNING: YOU MAY BE BEING SCAMMED! If you are on the phone with someone you DON'T know AND TRUST who has asked you to install RustDesk, do not install and hang up immediately. They are likely a scammer trying to steal your money or other private information.

Re: Ask HN: Free alternative to Teamviewer?

#32

Post by nullwarp » Thu, Apr 11, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

Mesh Central has been really great for me. Moved to it from rust desk.

https://meshcentral.com/

Use it to manage my entire family's computers and phones.

Re: Ask HN: Free alternative to Teamviewer?

#33

Post by jchw » Thu, Apr 11, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

rrr_oh_man wrote: post #31

ahofmann wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was downvoted, why?

Maybe because of that stupid screaming warning banner on the website: WARNING: YOU MAY BE BEING SCAMMED! If you are on the phone with someone you DON'T know AND TRUST who has asked you to install RustDesk, do not install and hang up immediately. They are likely a scammer trying to steal your money or other private information.

That's a pretty good warning, though! People use remote access software like TeamViewer to scam people out of money constantly, there's entire offices where people go to work just to scam people out of their money using this software.

It's such a huge problem that it really does warrant all of this attention.

Re: Ask HN: Free alternative to Teamviewer?

#34

Post by AndrewDucker » Thu, Apr 11, 2024, 2:38 PM UTC

rrr_oh_man wrote: post #31

ahofmann wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was downvoted, why?

Maybe because of that stupid screaming warning banner on the website: WARNING: YOU MAY BE BEING SCAMMED! If you are on the phone with someone you DON'T know AND TRUST who has asked you to install RustDesk, do not install and hang up immediately. They are likely a scammer trying to steal your money or other private information.

That kind of warning exists because a lot of people are being scammed. Warning people not to let strangers have access to their PC seems like the right thing to do.

Re: Ask HN: Free alternative to Teamviewer?

#35

Post by rrr_oh_man » Thu, Apr 11, 2024, 2:39 PM UTC

wannacboatmovie wrote: post #18

Hasn't Winders had this feature built in for over 20 years? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/solve-pc-problem...

Yeah, but isn’t it Windows-only? :-)

Re: Ask HN: Free alternative to Teamviewer?

#36

Post by klinquist » Thu, Apr 11, 2024, 2:39 PM UTC

panki27 wrote: post #15

whitefang wrote: post #7

RDP built into windows should work well?

RDP only works if you have a direct routing between the devices. OP is rather looking for Remote Assist.

Tailscale or Zerotier. I recommend this anyway - putting parents' computers on your "local lan".

Re: Ask HN: Free alternative to Teamviewer?

#37

Post by mirzap » Thu, Apr 11, 2024, 2:39 PM UTC

RustDesk is all you need. It's pretty decent and they have quite a few options even for business usage

Re: Ask HN: Free alternative to Teamviewer?

#38

Post by pimanrules » Thu, Apr 11, 2024, 2:44 PM UTC

If your only issue with TeamViewer is that it's falsely flagging you for commercial use, you can fill out a form to reset it (it's not instant though)

https://www.teamviewer.com/en-us/special/reset-management/

Re: Ask HN: Free alternative to Teamviewer?

#39

Post by ed_db » Thu, Apr 11, 2024, 2:45 PM UTC

I ran into this problem recently too, i found https://www.helpwire.app as an alternative, it was very useful as it clearly showed me what step the client was on to start the connection. However it doesn't allow unattended access, I will likely use a combination of this and Rustdesk

Re: Ask HN: Free alternative to Teamviewer?

#40

Post by pushreply » Thu, Apr 11, 2024, 2:46 PM UTC

tekla wrote: post #10

Tailscale + RDP.

THIS!

RDP or something like VNC. I can do remote to my Linux Mint via vnc, or Windows and MAC via RDP. Just another normal day. All goes through Tailscale