RustDesk. It works like TeamViewer: install the client on both machines, have the relative read out the client ID and one-time password over the phone, and you can connect immediately. It has self-hostable server components, but you can use the public relay servers without having to configure anything on the clients. You don't have to open any ports on the firewall either.
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026
33 points (97.1% liked)
Selfhosted
60253 readers
613 users here now
A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
Rules:
-
Be civil.
-
No spam.
-
Posts are to be related to self-hosting.
-
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.
-
Submission headline should match the article title.
-
No trolling.
-
Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details.
Resources:
- selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
- awesome-selfhosted software
- awesome-sysadmin resources
- Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting
Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.
Questions? DM the mods!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Thanks for the quick response, this looks perfect for what we need. Appreciate it very much!!!
nomachine is an alternative
If RustDesk doesn't do what you need, Remotely worked great for me and helping a few family members (though probably a bit more features than you may need).
Rustdesk did have some massive controversies in the past, like:
- installing root certificates without fully understanding the implications
- ignoring AGPL for their proprietary bits
- and other questionable decisions
Which raises doubts as to how trustworthy the development team is.
And while some other people say "it's ok that was in the past they fixed it", keep in mind that most of Brave Browser's controversies were in the past, and yet lemmy still hasn't forgiven them yet...so I'd like to know how long it takes for lemmy to forgive past mistakes
I don't think that most are ignoring the past life of RustDesk. I honestly can't think of any widely used software, open or closed source, that hasn't had controversy surrounding it during it's lifespan. Be that as it may, in my humble opinion, RustDesk is about the best thing going in that dept. other than VNC. So, you pick your poison. As far as how long it takes mob mentality to forgive and/or forget, that's not a concern of mine.
Moonlight/sunshine can be used for remote desktop, and doesn't have many controversies that I can remember, far less than Rustdesk at least. You just don't get the free relay servers, which some might call a plus.
Don't get me wrong, I personally still consider Rustdesk a viable alternative, I just think the controversies are recent enough and concerning enough that they should be brought up for consideration.
As for the forgive/forget bit, don't mind it that was just me poking at Lemmy's hypocrisy a bit
For your usecase, I would recommend Rustdesk.
But I would also like to mention Meshcentral. Meshcentral is a hosted application that lets you remotely manage multiple devices. It's different from meshcentral in that it maintains a constant connection, and you can do things like view files, run administrator CMD commands, in addition to being able to remotely connect and control the computer at any time.
It's more designed for managing a small enterprise environment, than individual support like OP is doing. The constant connection is designed to be a cheap, open source alternative to Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions that do something similar. It is invasive though, since it is essentially a backdoor you put in the computer, whereas rustdesk is temporary, and only works when you have it open and are actively connected and using it. That's why rustdesk is more suitable for individual support than meshcentral is.
Although I wouldn't recommend it for OP, I'm leaving this up for anyone in the future who might be searching for "remote tech support" or similar, and maybe they will find Meshcentral more appropriate.
It does seem like RustDesk is the best for my case. Thanks for taking the time to reply, and thank you for the extra info about Meshcentral. Hopefully it helps someone in the future!
I need something like this, but for my mother's malware filled phone...
Unfortunately, there isn't really a good solution for remote controlling android or ios devices. Meshcentral can view, but not act. Also, the user must initiate the connection from their end.
I was investigating this (for android tablets), and the solution I came too was to enable android debug tools (adb) over wireless (but in this case, remotely), vpn the phone into a remote server to connect them. Then, you should be able to run adb commands remotely (which lets you uninstall apps). And then over adb, you should be able to stream the screen and control it via genscrcpy.
Actually, the first solution I was going to use was device farmer: https://github.com/orgs/DeviceFarmer/repositories , but the above is basically how device farmer works.
I eventually gave up on remote controllung android devices because it wasn't needed and it would have been a complex deployment.
A simpler solution for your usecase is probably to spend a night cleaning up her phone, and then enable kiddie mode on it. That would disable app installs unless she calls you to approve it. In addition to that, (idk about ios), but you can actually install apps on android devices remotely via the google play website.
Thanks! I have to clean her phone every few months, so I might try the child mode thing.
Rustdesk is what I use for tech support for my family. By default it uses the rustdesk official server for the handshake and holepunching or whatever, but you can also selfhost your own if you want to.
But I want to migrate to some kind of hardware web kvm like nanokvm, cause sometimes their pc doesn't boot and walking them through bios settings over a shaky videocall is a nightmare.
No love for VNC here?
The remote user can even download & run a reverse VNC which connects back to the helper.
Cross-platform...
VNC still works.
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.
Valid point, although OP doesn't state CGNAT is in the way...
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.
Quick assist is built into windows so you dont need to install or download anything. Both of you just need to be on windows! It works great!
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| CGNAT | Carrier-Grade NAT |
| NAT | Network Address Translation |
| VNC | Virtual Network Computing for remote desktop access |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network |
3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 4 acronyms.
[Thread #19 for this comm, first seen 18th Jun 2026, 18:10] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
Has anybody tried DWService? It looks promising, and if you don't shoot me down I'll try it to help my mother with her constant printer issues.
I've used it to control my headless Windows server back when I was into self harm.
DWService is great! Never had issues with it. Try it on your own machine to play around and see if it works for your usecaze.
You surely meant self hosting right? Right...?
Not trying to stir the pot here, but to my understanding, the DWService agent is opensource, but the server side isn't. If I am errant in my conclusion, feel free to school me.
I like TacticalRMM though may be a little more in depth than you’re looking for.
a software
'Software' is not a word that get an 'a' article. So
I was hoping there exists software that
or
I was hoping there exists a software package that
Having said that, you can install UltraVNC and have it 'call home'; and it works very well.
Edit: Wow. So many people hate UVNC.