Remote desktops - currently-available, functional TeamViewer replacements for Puppy...

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Remote desktops - currently-available, functional TeamViewer replacements for Puppy...

Post by mikewalsh »

Evening, gang.

I'm making this a "sticky" for Networking, so it can be easily found.

As some of you may recall, back in the days when the Linux TeamViewer package was WINE-based, I took over building them for a bit after cimarron dropped off the radar. This lasted up until TV13.

From TV14, TeamViewer gmBH moved to a native Qt5-based app, and deprecated every older version up until that point. Result? No more TeamViewer for Puppy, because neither wizard nor myself have had any luck with making it behave itself.

(I vaguely recall Phil B. managed to create a functional package for one of his Puppies, but he didn't follow this up, and no-one has had any joy since with duplicating that success.)

So; what to do?

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Wizard and I have explored different avenues, and a few others have tried out various other applications. Some have attempted Google's Remote desktop app for Chrome, but apparently haven't got on very well with it. Remmina has been investigated; I found it was quite easy to create a portable of this, but it's a bit fiddly to use.

Wizard has had success with Anydesk. He and I have been maintaining a portable package between us, on & off, for quite a while now - but I've not been able to try it until very recently, because I never had a pair of sufficiently capable machines to experiment with. As of tonight, I can confirm that, yes; it works very well indeed......and despite the apparently complex mass of settings, very few of these actually need touching.

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I took a look at NoMachine a few days back. To be blunt, it was a frickin' nightmare. Awkward, cumbersome, not at ALL 'intuitive'.....obviously designed for ubergeeks, neck-beards and IT departments, 'cos nobody in their right minds would have the patience to fart about with it to the extent that it seems to want. Top & bottom, it's really a tool built for the enterprise sector. I washed my hands of it, ASAP. Not for the likes of us. Eurrghhh..... :(

I've had a lot more success with a web-based app called DWService. I came across this a few years ago, thought it sounded like a good idea - you run it though your browser! - and 'bookmarked' it. Again, I needed a better upgrade from the anciente P4-powered Dell lappie before I could attempt to use it. Trying to run a Chromium 'clone' with a P4 is worse than watching paint dry.....it's soooo slow.

All you do with this one is to visit their website & download a Python-based script. All Pups basically include Python these days, so that's no big deal, really. You execute this script on whatever Puppy you want to control via remote; it generates a unique, one-time user ID & password. You jot these down, visit the website again, enter the log-in details exactly as you wrote them down,and 'Sign-in'.

The magic all happens on DWService's servers. As with AnyDesk, it functions very smoothly & fluff-free. The only thing you don't get with this one - which you DO with AnyDesk - is a built-in chat client. Which is easy enough to work around.

(I'm a big believer in making use of on-line services wherever possible. There's on-line methods for doing almost anything you can imagine these days.....so why not employ them if you can?)

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So. To recap:-

NoMachine - definitely not, unless you relish a challenge and enjoy making life hard for yourself.

AnyDesk - a good TV replacement. Works smoothly, and relatively lag-free - viewtopic.php?t=1104

Remmina - certainly usable, though CAN be fiddly. May require some understanding of VPNs, "tunnels" and such-like - viewtopic.php?t=6095

DWService - again, an easy-to-use TV replacement, this time web-based, making use of a 'portable' script - viewtopic.php?t=8490

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Hopefully, this will help some of you to examine your options.

Mike. ;)

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Re: Remote desktops - currently-available, functional TeamViewer replacements for Puppy...

Post by mistfire »

Rustdesk. It works like TeamViewer but it can remote access on Windows and Major Linux distros only
https://rustdesk.com/

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Re: Remote desktops - currently-available, functional TeamViewer replacements for Puppy...

Post by stemsee »

nilsonmorales wrote: Wed Apr 19, 2023 1:44 am

Zerotier-one
viewtopic.php?p=82725&hilit=zerotier+one#p82725

I don't see how zerotier can count as a remote desktop or even a chat client. It doesn't do any of that! It provides a similar ip coordinating service as noip https://www.noip.com .... to allow other connections such as ssh etc.

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Re: Remote desktops - currently-available, functional TeamViewer replacements for Puppy...

Post by Clarity »

@mikewalsh commend you on creating this as a category.

I see you mention Chrome REmote Desk. Can you or @wizard elaborate a little on problem(s)?

Did you test local LAN user to another local LAN PC? (for example something a teacher might do with a student in a classroom)

Is this isolated to Linux only? Or is it related to running as root vs some other user?

Curious

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Re: Remote desktops - currently-available, functional TeamViewer replacements for Puppy...

Post by nilsonmorales »

how I use zerotier-one to connect remote desktop
viewtopic.php?p=82625#p82625
puppy2puppy
puppy2windows
windows2puppy
android2puppyandwindows
windows2windows
yea @stemsee is right you can consider or not remote desktop app

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Re: Remote desktops - currently-available, functional TeamViewer replacements for Puppy...

Post by mikewalsh »

@Clarity :-

As far as Chrome's remote desktop goes, the process always seizes-up for me when I get the request from the browser to let "xdg-open" fire something up. I can't get beyond that point. Never have been able to.

As for testing, yes; I tried between two machines on the same LAN. With both AnyDesk AND DWService, in either direction - desktop to laptop, or laptop to desktop - this performed flawlessly.....so as far as I'm concerned, either of these is a worthwhile replacement for TeamViewer.

Since both work across the 'net in standard operation, I can't see that doing the same thing with 2 machines that are several thousand miles apart would make the slightest difference.....apart from more in the way of 'lag', I guess.

Mike. ;)

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Re: Remote desktops - currently-available, functional TeamViewer replacements for Puppy...

Post by step »

To your assessment of no-machine, I can add that no-machine works well on Fatdog for a remote desktop driving macOS. Much, much faster than VNC-based solutions, which suck on macOS.

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Re: Remote desktops - currently-available, functional TeamViewer replacements for Puppy...

Post by mikewalsh »

@mikeslr :-

I wish Erik luck with that, Mike. I couldn't get on with it; too much "faffing-about" for my liking.

As for Chrome Remote Desktop, Clarity wanted to know what I had problems with when trying to use it. Well, @Clarity , quite simply.....it won't install for me. It insists on installing via the XDG protocol, opening its installer through the browser.....and this simply doesn't work correctly with most Puppies. It may have finally been "fixed" with the current crop of the very newest Puppies/Dogs, but I'm not one of these folks that absolutely must run the very newest of everything all the time. I'm just not that obsessive about it.

My vote remains firmly with Anydesk as the best TeamViewer replacement for Puppy. It's small; CPU usage is pretty low when in use; and best of all, remote access works properly here, unlike under TeamViewer, where they insist on you creating an account, accessing that account via an online "dashboard", setting-up 2FA, then confirming it's you via 2FA BEFORE they'll condescend to let you attempt to set up remote access. And this entire palaver has to be repeated every single time you open TeamViewer, even during the same session..... :roll:

Anydesk only needs this setting-up once, in the Settings panel. After that, it works every time you connect to that machine. It works with most of the popular Puppies, all the way back to Tahrpup64 (the slightly older 6.1 still works with 32-bit Pups). AND.......the 'portable' version can be run from a flash drive, if required. You don't even need to install it.

No contest, if I'm honest.... :D @wizard and I will continue to keep this one usable for as long as we can, that's for definite!

(*shrug...*)

Mike. ;)

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