Remote Tech Support services?

2026-06-17 20:04 UTC

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!

Replies (4)

@Cyber@feddit.uk 2026-06-18 06:33

No love for VNC here? The remote user can even download & run a reverse VNC which connects back to the helper. Cross-platform…

Open ##3401976
@corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2026-06-18 06:57

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.

Open ##3402628
@rtxn@lemmy.world 2026-06-17 20:18

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.

Open ##3953095
@Hotzmon@fedinsfw.app 2026-06-17 20:22

People saying rustdesk should realize the Chinese connection it has. I would not use it for that reason.

Open ##3953096