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Show HN: P2P remote desktop – an alternative to TeamViewer / AnyDesk
- gbraad 5y agoNo encryption or password locked?
- 55873445216111 5y agoCan it run over TCP? Or only UDP (UDT)?
- artificialLimbs 5y agoWhy would you want remote desktop over TCP? Genuine question...
- HoppyHaus 5y agoCertain networks heavily filter, or entirely filter UDP. At least having the option is a nice thing in case you find yourself in that situation.
- 1cvmask 5y agoThis only runs on windows? If so which versions? Is there session recording and MSI deployment?
- gbraad 5y agoDon't think you wanna use this in production.
- jeroenhd 5y agoThis 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 most of Teamviewer/Anydesk/whatever implemented. There's VNC, but that's horribly outdated and the UX is absolutely terrible. I think there's a business to be built here; open source remote support with a Gitlab-style self-hosted option companies can put down in their own networks, or have them pay you for management and servers. This project is a good starting place, as any. With some tweaks you could probably build this into a end-user friendly system with your usual numeric code and random password. There's a business to be built in this space, I'm sure of it. I wish I had the expertise to take advantage of that.
- poovamraj 5y agoYou should check this amazing project - https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk
- jeroenhd 5y agoThis looks great! I'm definitely checking this out!
- sneak 5y agoThe server component is not open source: https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk-server/blob/master/id-relay-set.md https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk-server/blob/master/id-r...
- deknos 5y agouff did not see that, thats a pity :(
- cycomanic 5y agoI noticed that as well just now. I have to say, emphasising open source remote desktop when in fact the server is closed software is a big antipattern and leads me to avoid the software already.
- jeroenhd 5y agoIt seems like there's a basic version of the server software that's open source (only does one connection, no NAT or encryption, etc.) but someone could make a server based on that. It could get the bitwarden-rs treatment to make it more enticable.
- maverick74 5y agoLooks very nice. have to try it. thanks for sharing
- conductr 5y agoWhat 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.
- eins1234 5y agoAm 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 streamlined onboarding and everyday operation. I personally have been using Parsec most often these days and might even start paying money for it soon for some of their advanced features, as they've recently pivoted their marketing towards the productivity side, which is a move I'm happy to support with my wallet. I honestly don't see a reason why someone would use any of the traditional players in the space these days for personal use. Not sure how the tech in this project compares, but I think it should try to measure itself against something like Parsec/Rainway rather than TeamViewer/AnyDesk if it wants to compete at the state of the art.
- toastercat 5y agoYes, you're the only one out of the 8 billion people on Earth.
- jeroenhd 5y agoI think the difference is that Teamviewer/AnyDesk is intended mostly for corporate usage. Their software is optimised for images that are mostly static, letting them get away with much less bandwidth without making text blurry or illegible. Standard H.264/H.265 encoded video needs sharpening and extra filters to be both low bandwidth and legible in many cases. Parsec and friends use more bandwidth and hardware resources to get a stream going, but that stream is of much higher quality. You probably won't be running a fully-staffed remote support company over DSL or basic cable with Parsec, but with Teamviewer you just might. I've made several remote support connections at the same time on ≤8Mbps down on a simple Core i3, you just can't get that done with a game streaming solution like Parsec. Modern streaming services also require hardware encoding support or their CPU requirements are huge, and the endpoints support software often connect to isn't that powerful. Microsoft's RDP solution in excellent on all fronts, though. Normal H.264 encoding for moving content and static-optimized codecs for office machines, all with heuristics to switch codecs on the fly. Sadly, this is all locked away behind licenses for consumer devices, but the technology is there.
- jszymborski 5y agoWhen I RDP or VNC over Tailscale/Wireguard, isn't this basically what's happening? Sincere question, I don't really get networking all that well.
- outside1234 5y agoYes
- guilhas 5y agoMore or less, in this case apparently there is no server setup. In your case you probably have to configure a wireguard server and forward the router port. Here is just using a public stun google server for discovery
- zogomoox 5y ago@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.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- pabs3 5y agoThe 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 https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#Expat
- zogomoox 5y agoHe's directly including (not linking) LGPL code.
- _shantaram 5y agoHi, why's your username green?
- sllabres 5y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3848762 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3848762
- _shantaram 5y agoAh, thank you!
- xnx 5y agoBig fan of Chrome Remote Desktop for no hassle access from any device.
- acehw 5y agoLet me know when it's available for Linux and Android so I can access my Linux desktop from my Android phone
- squarefoot 5y agohttps://remmina.org/ https://remmina.org/ Also 100% FOSS, but more advanced.
- anhner 5y agoIs this just a client or is it also a server? It's not clear from their site...
- al_be_back 5y agoIt's just a client, written in C/GTK apparently [reddit - About Remmina](https://www.reddit.com/r/Remmina/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Remmina/)
- edwinyzh 5y agoRe. remote desktop stability, not sure if my experience as someone censored by the GFW makes any sense, but when my RDP to oversea Windows host become unstable, Jump Desktop gives me fast and stable connection, and for free. Their program is lightweight and fast too.
- not1ofU 5y agoDo you have any plans in case your software becomes famous to scammers? TeamViewer / Anydesk (and the rest) regularly take actions to disable accounts of fake call (scam) centers. For examples of this check out the youtube channels of: Jim Browning / Kitboga / Perogi and lots more
- maccolgan 5y agoWhy would you want censorship in a P2P remote desktop software?
- not1ofU 5y agolol - nobody mentioned censorship. take a look at the way this type of software is used to abuse and scam older people who have no clue about how computers (and the associated scams work) Take a look at any single video on any single one of those youtube channels and you will see that this is a problem that needs to be at least considered. It could be as simple as a massive warning detailing the scam on the installer. Edit: In fact heres a link Its both hilarious and depressing all at the same time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbberJE-UBo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbberJE-UBo
- ComodoHacker 5y agoWhat method are you using for screen capture?
- apankrat 5y agoThe NAT traversal logic here is really basic and won't hold up well in practice. A good chunk of NAT devices will pick external port based on [src ip/port, dst ip/port] combo, not just [src ip/port], so "WAN IP/port" you get from STUN will get you nothing useful. Not by itself. STUNs should be used for discovering the pattern in NAT port overloading logic and then using it to predict which port your peer will use towards you if you were to try and connect now. That is, you need to know the overloading pattern and then also time stuff correctly. For that reason you will need a rendezvous server and it's also the best to let the server drive the whole process (as opposed to what STUN-based setups do, which is to let clients do it). PS. In my past life I made a P2P VPN called Hamachi, which used all this stuff very extensively.
- jacobmischka 5y agoThanks for your work on Hamachi! I used it a few months ago to play a "LAN" game over the internet with friends, still works great (even on Linux)!
- bflesch 5y agoI loved hamachi! May I ask what you are up to nowadays?
- m4lvin 5y agoFor those wanting a simple Linux alternative: If you have SSH access as the same user as the one running the X11 session on the remote host, you can do this: ssh -v -L 5900:localhost:5900 user@remotehost 'DISPLAY=":0" xterm -e "x11vnc -localhost"' And then krdc vnc://localhost or whatever VNC client you like. For linux-to-linux this has replaced TeamViewer for me, together with zerotier.com for getting through NAT.
- wdb 5y agoI hope it doesn't allow the person that takes over the desktop to blank out the users desktop / image.
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- guilhas 5y agoVery interesting project. Sometimes wonder why there aren't more project like this, that remove the need for configuring a server
- mp85 5y agoI wanted to thank everyone for sharing your experiences, point of views, for the support, for suggestions, and for sharing projects similar to P2P Remote Desktop. Thanks for making this discussion very interesting and constructive. Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. (Henry Ward Beecher)