Remote Tech Support services? (piefed.social)

submitted 3 weeks ago by marighost@piefed.social to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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Howdy Selfhosters!

A family member who does not live in my state recently got a new PC, and asked for my help in setting it up. Since it can't be done in person, I'll have to do this over the phone. Problem is, I don't really want to walk them through all of the steps (download Firefox, ublock origin, uninstall W11 bloat, etc) over the phone. I was hoping there exists a software that I could host on my Linux machine (I am able to port forward/host externally if necessary), and instruct them over the phone to download the "other end" (client-side) of the software so that I can remote in and set their PC up myself.

I checked out the awesome-selfhosted list and found that most of the remote access softwares are mainly for SSH servers. I did check out Guacamole, but I'm not sure I understand how to utilize the software. Any help and suggestions are welcome. Thank you everyone!

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[-] EnsignWashout@startrek.website 2 points 3 weeks ago

I'm also a big VNC fan, but I imagine RustDesk is solving for CGNAT better? I'm not aware of anything in VNC that solves CGNAT being a PITA.

[-] Cyber@feddit.uk 2 points 3 weeks ago

Valid point, although OP doesn't state CGNAT is in the way...

[-] EnsignWashout@startrek.website 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah. I just mention it because I've generally just used VNC myself; and wondered what the fuss with fancier tools was about.

But then I realized home Internet has getting worse for some folks, and so folks might be using a service to get VPN-ed together, or whatever.

this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026

33 points (97.1% liked)

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