Remote control of observatory

[KathyNS]

I have good local control of my observatory on my local network, i.e. inside my router. I'd like to make it accessible to myself only when I am travelling. I know that I need to set it up so that the router/firewall allows an incoming connection from out in the world. The question is what do I have to do to set that up?

I have TeamViewer installed on my observatory computer and on my iPad, which is what I would be travelling with. I have successfully connected within my own network.

Do I need a VPN? (I know what the letters stand for, but I have never used one and have no idea of its capabilities.) How do I make sure that I am the only person that can use the access?

The observatory runs Win7. Teamviewer is installed on both devices. I am using a run-of-the-mill DLink router.

Any help gratefully appreciated.

[JimMinCT]

Be careful with TeamViewer... I just had it out with them yesterday.
They considered my single connection to the Obsy a commercial use and are now demanding I upgrade.
They will allow only 5 min connections. Grrrrr
TemViewer, IMHO now is about useless.
It runs its own VPN and as long as you use the login feature, and don't use the easy login, (where it keeps the info loaded), you should be able to log in from anywhere.
I was able to log in from my work machine as a test, when I first set it up after building the Obsy.

Good Luck!

[KathyNS]

Thanks, Jim. I'll test the connection from offsite next time I am in town.

Bummer about the forced upgrade crap, and the crazy time limit. I use Windows Remote Desktop at home, but that won't run on an iPad. (I'd be happy to be proved wrong about that!) Any alternatives that you can recommend for cross-platform remote access?

[OhNo]

I tried TeamViewer. Just when I was getting comfortable with the "How-to" and "What-to" I had a major(ish) problem. Like Jim said my problem arose at about the 5 minute mark of the experiment. It just quit!

I go out and check and see what the remote computer is doing, and low and behold it had re-booted. No biggie, however when what ever made it re-boot it also caused another issue. ALL my settings on APT had reverted back to default. I'm still trying to get all the boxes ticked that I had prior to installing TeamViewer.

I immediately deleted TV from both computers (thinking I may have been hacked). When I was deleting the program a pop-up came up asking me why I was deleting. I dutifully let them know my issue. That was 10 days ago and haven't heard from anyone.

I was using the free version. One other issue with the way I had it set up was that each computer had a rolling password. SO I had to make a note of that password for the remote computer each time I opened TeamViewer.

I believe I lack the computing skills to use this type of program. Kind of like going to Vegas "if you can't afford to lose, don't play".

[JimMinCT]

Thanks, Jim. I'll test the connection from offsite next time I am in town.

Bummer about the forced upgrade crap, and the crazy time limit. I use Windows Remote Desktop at home, but that won't run on an iPad. (I'd be happy to be proved wrong about that!) Any alternatives that you can recommend for cross-platform remote access?

I'm in the process of looking at alternatives right now...
If i see anything that jumps out at me, I'll shoot you a link.

Cheers

[Juno16]

Dang! I hate to hear that some of you are having issues with TeamViewer.

I have been using it since the beginning of the year with no issues at all. Leave it running all night on the imaging laptop and indoors desktop without issues (both Windows 10).

I haven’t used it in about six weeks though. I hope all works well my next time out!

Thanks,
Jim

[JimMinCT]

A lot of the troubles started when I upgraded to Ver 14.
I hope you have better luck, Jim... I ran with no issues for almost 2 years, until the upgrade, that is...

[KathyNS]

I use Windows Remote Desktop at home, but that won't run on an iPad. (I'd be happy to be proved wrong about that!)

OMG, just on a whim, I Googled WRD for iPad, and I found this: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... esktop-ios. I guess I'll be checking it out!

[OhNo]

Buddy of mine discovered Chrome Remote. Just got in from running a full test on it (rudimentary set-up running Camera, Mount and it will initiate and run PHD2 and Plate Solving). Setting Chrome remote was straight forward.

After the issues with TeamViewer I looked in to Windows Remote however I only own Windows 10 Home, so that wasn't happening.

Now I have to just remember the sequence I used to have it all talk to each other! Oh, and a nice clear dry sky!!!! :twitch:

[bladekeeper]

Buddy of mine discovered Chrome Remote. Just got in from running a full test on it (rudimentary set-up running Camera, Mount and it will initiate and run PHD2 and Plate Solving). Setting Chrome remote was straight forward.

After the issues with TeamViewer I looked in to Windows Remote however I only own Windows 10 Home, so that wasn't happening.

Now I have to just remember the sequence I used to have it all talk to each other! Oh, and a nice clear dry sky!!!! :twitch:

I've been using Chrome Remote to check in on the laptop out in the yard during an imaging sequence. So far it works very well and I have had no issues.

I also used it from work once to email myself a document from my home PC. Using my cell phone, I remoted in, pulled up my email program, attached the doc and fired it off to my work email.

[SkyHiker]

If you need a solid cross-platform remote desktop solution, use VNC. It runs on Windows, Unix/Linux, the client runs on those and Android and I'm sure on an iPad too.

Run it over a VPN. I know that NetGear has a built-in VPN but I haven't used it. Check what your DLink is capable of.

Alternatively, why not buy a Synology NAS and put all your local and remote data on there. You can configure it as RAID, it has VPN (including OpenVPN), email, cloud services, use it for backup, you name it, it is cheap and is super easy to configure. For that you need to do some port forwarding, with the online help it is easy to do.

[dcrowson]

For remote connections like VNC and Remote Desktop, you could just port forward the ports on your existing router. 3389 for Remote Desktop and 5900 for VNC. You would direct your client to the router public IP address (or dynamic dns name - DDNS) and it would forward to the end machine. I would make sure the passwords are strong. I think the 'standard' VNC only supports 8 character passwords. The Windows machine could be dictionary probed while you're not connected but it supports much longer passwords.

If your router supports allowing VPN clients to connect, that would be the best route. The only issue with this might be getting the client to split tunnel so that if you want to browse the internet, the traffic doesn't go to your home and back out but this might not be much of an issue.

I wouldn't get to creative for once a year type remote access. To be honest, I have a remote observatory 1,200 miles away and the site had around 15 other observatories. The majority of the people use teamviewer with no issues. The three of us in mine use VNC and and I personally use a program called simplehelp which is somewhat like teamviewer but I run the server. We use it in my day job where I have ~1000 machines on it. It wouldn't be a cheap option for a home user. I know of others that use Chrome.

Dan

[yobbo89]

i use lm viewer, it's free, a little simplistic , needs a fast network