YouTube Transcript:
Your Remote Desktop SUCKS!! Try this instead (FREE + Open Source)

remote desktop one computer remotely
accessing another computer we use it all
the time it's required in it and you
know what I found a new solution that I
love Windows Mac Linux doesn't matter
from any computer including my where's
my phone there it is including my phone
it's free open source I can host it
myself that was a big deal and it's
solving a massive problem for me because
up until now I've been paying for RDP or
remote access and I'm tired of it and
you might be in this oh my gosh I just
SP coffee everywhere and you might be in
the same boat I'm in a boat I've got
coffee everywhere I'll be right
back so while I do use every operating
system because I love it my primary
Workhorse is Windows we're kind of doing
like a little history of RDP or remote
access before I show you my favorite
solution I will show you I just feel
like I need to tell you the story first
is that cool now I use every OS Mac
Linux windows I love them all but I got
a problem with Windows specifically
their RDP now here's the current state
of remote desktop and my biggest problem
with it so right now remote desktop
if you're on a Windows computer which I
often am it's my daily driver they
actually have a pretty amazing remote
desktop solution it's native it's called
remote desktop or RDC remote desktop
connection from this computer here the
one I'm using I can remote into that
laptop behind me also running Windows
let's try it out we'll search for remote
desktop connection or if you're old
school you'll search for mstsc put in
your IP address and click on connect and
I'm in like it's it's amazing except for
one very big issue and this is the
reason I have to pay for remote desktop
this computer here the one I'm remoting
into it has to be Windows Pro Windows 11
Pro Edition can't just be home now sure
this computer the one I'm using to
remote into the other one this can be
any Windows Edition it can be home but
the ability to go into your settings
we'll pull it up real quick remote
desktop settings and turn this feature
on to allow people to connect to your
computer you have to have Pro for that
so my solution has been to upgrade all
my stuff to Pro because I remote into
all my things including my video editors
they remote into their PC's all the time
so we have to be Pro everywhere Pro cost
200 bucks kind of stupid for something
that should be guaranted
built into your system also Microsoft's
native RDP software is fairly limited a
big feature it lacks is being able to
log into your computer from anywhere
that's not possible those computers have
to be on the same network but often my
editors are not on the same network as
the computer they're trying to remote
into they're going to be at their house
they're going to be traveling that's
where twin gate comes in the sponsor of
this video we'll talk more about them
later but just know they are my remote
access solution they make it to where my
video editors can connect to all my
stuff here securely from anywhere so
Windows while home remote into pro pro
cannot remote into home or home to home
but this problem hasn't bothered me
until now why well now Network truck
Studios is going full Mac yes every
video editor is moving from a PC based
editing system to a Mac and here's the
problem they often need to remote into
their machines when they're working from
home or when they're away now Mac can
remote into Windows just fine it has a
Microsoft Remote Desktop app has to be
Pro can't do home but it works great the
problem is that windows cannot remote
into Mac not easily and certainly not
natively and when I say native I mean
the app that the OS provides for you
which normally does give you the best
performance so if you can use that go
for it now we also use Linux around here
we're big fans and sometimes our Linux
machines do have a guey and we want to
remote into those by the way do you say
guey or GUI recently someone gave me
Flack for saying guey I stand by it now
Linux is pretty cool you can install
what's called xrdp and this allows you
to use a remote desktop client Mac or
Windows and connect to your Linux box
using RDP very cool now to add one more
annoying layer on top of this you could
use a protocol called VNC it's very
popular for remote desktop and you can
install it on all these operating
systems it sounds kind of perfect right
like that's our solution uh the NC is
kind of hard it's a big pain to install
especially on Linux and it may not give
you all the bells and whistles you're
looking for copy and paste can be
Troublesome and with my editors logging
in to edit videos I'll need some like
amazing native GPU performance so this
is the state of RDP while there are
solutions and some actually work very
well it wasn't good enough for me it's
too cumbersome I want one simple
solution free open source and amazing is
that too hard to ask and that's where
this Journey Begins I had to find
something amazing and it had to work for
Mac Linux and windows everything okay
here is what I found because as I
mentioned before I did find the best
solution at least for me and my company
and I think it might be for you we'll
see but here are some honorable mentions
and I actually do use these all the time
there's a sector of remote desktop
called browser based remote desktop
meaning you can access a computer
remotely right from your stinking
browser you'll see two big players up
there both free in open source you got
guacamole and my personal favorite Chasm
VNC which as the name suggests they are
using VNC but it's their own flavor and
it's very very awesome they take all the
pain away and they do work for every OS
Mac Linux windows so you're probably
wondering Chuck why not just use those
they're not a native client they're
fantastic for accessing a system where
you're just going to do some basic web
browsing maybe some terminal stuff for
example I do have an employee in the
Philippines who will log into our system
with twin gate which is wicked fast and
she'll log into chm workspaces it looks
like this let me stop describing it for
you and show you here's Terry my AI
machine in my server room right now and
boom I'm in this is my favorite way to
access stuff remotely and while kasm has
made some Leaps and Bounds in doing GPU
related access you can't beat native
client support there are better options
that have a client installed for doing
heavier things like video editing this
is where my research kind of took a
weird turn team viewer don't worry
that's not my solution but it is a
solution like this if you've ever been
hacked you'll know what team viewer is
I'm just kidding but hackers do use team
viewer it is one of the best ways to get
remote access to any kind of system now
for example I'm The Unofficial it guy at
my church and I manage their Windows
desktop there I've got team viewer
running on it so I've got my team viewer
application here and without a VPN
connection I can simply connect to this
machine it's kind of amazing for what it
is and as you can see here it's free for
personal use and it does have a ton of
features but honestly I'm kind of
annoyed by it because every time you
connect to something it tells you hey
this is free you disconnect to like hey
this is a sponsored session make sure
you play fair buy a license I don't like
that but the biggest thing I have a
problem with is that I'm using team
viewers servers to access this computer
they're in control if you trust team
viewer this is the solution for you if
you're unsure keep watching I wanted
something better than this something
that didn't make me feel guilty every
time I used it so I could use it for my
business and something that's truly free
and open source something I can host
myself because I love hosting things
myself it's the best so team viewer is
out but I love team viewer for what it
does it's so easy to get remote access
you just simply install a client and
boom you can get in you don't need a VPN
nection although I do recommend it and
performance aside it gives you a great
way to do remote support for your family
and friends they're having a PC issue
Mac issue Linux issue bam you can get
access almost immediately no matter
where they are so I wanted something
like that with performance my laundry
list is pretty high and I landed on two
things two very popular options one you
probably heard of is called any desk
I've heard a lot about this one recently
a big competitor the team viewer and the
one I chose my favorite is called rust
desk rust desk called that because they
wrote it in Rust a very popular
programming language now as far as
features are pretty similar free without
the guilt and the biggest thing for me
you can host your own server locally
well asterisk you can host your own
server locally for free with rust desk
if you want to host your own server
locally on any desk that's a paid option
that's Pro also rust desk is open source
and while they do have a pro option so
you can pay them and get official
support that's a whole thing they do
maintain an open- Source version of
their software and similar to team
viewer and any desk they do have GPU
acceleration clients for everything
including your phone but the biggest
things for me open source and the
ability to host it locally yourself
let's do that right now now typically
when you're installing rust desk that
means you're going to be installing a
rust desk server either on Prim in your
home lab or in the cloud but you don't
actually need that in many cases you
don't need a server at all if you have
the rust desk client which the more I
say rust desk the harder it is to say I
don't know why if you have the client
installed on your computers and they're
on the same network or they're using
twin gate for remote access they can
access each other via IP address so
check this out I'll install rust desk on
my laptop over here that I'm already
remoted into I'm going to remotely
install some remote software I'll have
all these links below but it's pretty
easy to find click on download find our
client which would be Windows I'll do
MSI for 64bit install it and then
there's one setting we have to change to
allow local access we'll click on these
dots right here next to our ID and then
click on I believe Network we'll unlock
those settings which will give you a
little UAC prompt no not Network it's
going to be security we'll unlock those
too and we'll scroll down to the bottom
where we'll see enable direct IP access
perfect we'll say Port 21118 apply
that's the default and then up here
we'll set a permanent password okay
that's all we have to do now I'm going
to disconnect my native RDP application
and then I'll use rust desk this client
here on my computer which I already have
installed obviously and I've been using
it a lot I'm going to connect directly
to the IP Ready set go oh wait asking
for my password and I'm in it's looking
for my login my
face I'm here I'm here I don't have to
do that it'll give me an option to log
in with my pen there we go and I'm in
now it's kind of bouny and weird let me
change the resolution to scaled and
right now at this moment we're simply IP
to IP local network nothing going to the
cloud notice up the top here it'll tell
me hey this connection is direct and
unencrypted which is fine on your local
network and I can do the same thing with
my Mac it's connect put in the password
and I'm in browsing on my Mac also
notice too when I try and change the
settings for rust desk on the remote
machine these set things are grayed out
by default but that is a setting we can
change by going to security and enabling
remote modification now this may be
where your remote access Journey ends
this may be good enough for you it's
actually good enough for most of my use
cases many things I want to access are
right here on my land and when I'm away
when I'm at my house when I'm traveling
when I want to access my stuff from my
phone I still want the local access I
don't want to go through any other
server and I do that with the sponsor
this video twin gate now here comes the
ad portion of this video yes videos are
sponsored it happens sometimes for me
all the time but seriously twin gate is
a longtime sponsor of my channel I trust
them I use them every day they are a
zero trust network access solution and
they enable me to access my stuff from
anywhere in the most secure way possible
and I prefer to use twin gate with rust
desk because I get fine control over who
has access to what for example we just
did this because Mike our editor was one
of the first to receive a Mac and he's
like hey we just had a big snowstorm how
do I work from home today because I
can't remote into my Mac now what I love
about twin gate is that it's completely
free for home labers and also for
businesses if you don't have over like I
think it's five users 10 users what does
it say I have to actually look it up oh
yeah five users and all you have to do
to enable remote access is install a
twin gate connector somewhere in your
network it could be a Raspberry Pi in
fact in my last video I needed access to
my church remote access to control their
Network all I did was install twin gate
on a Raspberry Pi and drop that off at
the church now from anywhere I can
access that Network notice here in my
resources I've got Mike smack and check
this out I can see who's been accessing
Mike's Mac Isaac and Mike why is Isaac
using maik's mic Mike's Mac I'm getting
confused here Mike's Mac and that's
controlled the uh a security group I
have for video editors and you have to
be in that video editor group to be able
to access Mike's Mac maik's Mic Mac M
Mike's Mac so no matter what solution
you use to remotely access your desktops
twin gate is there to give you that
local connectivity if you want to go
native go native remote desktop for
Microsoft Remote Desktop from Mac those
typically and actually I think they do
have better performance than third party
you can have that and use twin gate so
if you want to access your home lab from
anywhere watching Plex loging into your
Nas or you want to be able to access
your family and friends Network remotely
so you can help them with their it stuff
check out twin gate link below long-term
sponsor I trust them I love them end of
the ad segment back to talking about
rust desk now just because I'm mainly
using the local access with twin gate
doesn't mean I'm not going to install a
rust desk server somewhere what I want
to do is install a rust desk server
which by the way is super easy to
install we're going to install that with
Docker which you know I love docker
we're gonna install that in the cloud
hey check from the future here I forgot
to mention that the reason we want to
install a rust death server in the cloud
is that it's reachable by everyone in
the cloud so when you do want to have
those remote access situations for your
family or friends and they're not
already on your vpm with twin gate
that's a quick and easy way to do that
it's also great to have that as a backup
for example I may take my laptop with me
somewhere and I leave it up in my hotel
room powered on and I want to remotely
access it from my phone while I'm
walking around I don't have twin gate
access to my hotel room but my rust
server will get me back to my laptop I
mean who doesn't love redundancy now you
100% can install this locally in your
network and the installation will be the
same steps you might have to do some
port forwarding to make things work but
I think you have the best experience by
having it in the cloud I'll show you why
first we'll log into a cloud a cloud is
just someone else's data center someone
else's computer for me I'm going to use
l node I use multiple clouds this just
happens to be the one I'm using right
now it doesn't matter what cloud you use
and I'll set up a new server something
close to M and something small I'll run
on Ubuntu 2404 and I'll choose their
smallest instance a $51 g gab of ram a
little machine five bucks a month I'll
label it give it a password and create
it's amazing how easy it is to create a
virtual machine a computer and the cloud
just like that now you might be
wondering Chuck we just did the rust Des
client situation what's the server doing
why do we need that well the server is
operating as it was called a relay
server SL revu server this will be
useful in a situation where you may not
have local network connectivity for a
computer you're trying to access so for
example your uncle rico calls you up and
says hey my computer no working need
help you say okay fine go to Rusk
desk.com install this little application
and tell me the code you have or the ID
and the client it'll look something like
this ID and then a n-digit number very
similar to team viewer if you've ever
used that this ID will help you discover
the other computer and connect to it and
all that magic happens with the rust
desk server we'll put in Uncle Rico's ID
and our rust client will reach out to
our server and say hey I got this ID I'm
trying to connect to a computer can you
help me out can you facilitate this and
the server will do just that it'll
figure out hey can we bust through Uncle
Rico's Network in firewall do some Gat
hole punching and facil a direct
connection between us or is that not
possible is Uncle Rico's Network just
terrible and the server itself will be
the middleman facilitating that
connection either way the rust server is
going to make sure it happens and also I
way oversimplified how that works if you
want to learn more do a nice nerdy Deep
dive that's a weird phrase I'm going to
trademark that they have a very fun
diagram that shows all those handshakes
and that Discovery and notice too when I
say rust desk server I'm really meaning
rust desk servers there's a signaling
server and a relay server but when we
install it via Docker it's just going to
be like that so actually let's do it
right now looking at my lenoe and I'll
grab the IP address and using my
terminal here in Windows I'll SSH root
at the IP address of course this will
vary based on what cloud you're using or
if you're going local just get logged
into your local server now a couple
things we're going to do first we'll do
a pseudo AP update to make sure all our
repos are updated we'll then install
Docker so we're going to use to run our
rust desk servers if you don't know what
Docker is oh I envy you you get to learn
it fresh like watching a new movie or
reading a Harry Potter book sorry yeah
I'm a nerd uh go check out my video here
talking about Docker it'll change your
life after you install this cuz you
don't have to know what it is to be able
to play with it in fact playing with it
will help you learn it I'll have this
link below to install Docker it'll be
two quick copy and paste things first
will set out docker's AP repository all
we have that sounds really scary I know
all we have to do is copy this code and
paste it over here hit enter it's going
to do its things for just a moment so
we'll get a little coffee break done and
all that's doing is setting out docker's
Repose because when we install Docker
when we use the command install Docker
we're going to look at Docker servers
and say we want the fresh most upated
date version of what you have and then
we'll use this command that we'll copy
and paste pseudo AP get install Docker
it's going to install all the docker
components just the way Docker wants you
to install them hit enter and let it run
this also should not take very long but
we'll take a little coffee break now at
this point we do have Docker installed
and we can now set up our rust desk
servers this is the easiest part Docker
makes everything easy I will have a link
below it's going to take you to this
page here we're on the self host tab
they have a section for Docker
installation and we're going to use a
Docker tool called Docker compose again
this is very very easy see this code
right here we're going to cop Cy it with
this little button copy that and over
here in our terminal we're going to do a
few things first we'll make a new
directory mkd we'll call it rust desk
Docker we'll use CD to jump into that
directory CD rust Docker and then we'll
create a new file we'll use Nano Nano
and we'll call this
docker-compose.yml and then right here
we're going to paste all that deliciouso
that we just copied from russes
documentation it's describing creating
two containers hbbs and hbbr are two
rust desk servers all we have to do here
is hit contrl X y enter to save and then
with one command we're going to bring up
our servers and have rust desk running
the command will be Docker space compose
space up- d Ready set go isn't this
magic oh that was that's it it's done
isn't that crazy you'll see our two
servers running there and that's pretty
much all we have to worry about actually
there is one more thing if you type in
LS in the directory you're in right now
you'll see a folder called Data this was
created by our Docker compose file when
we ran Docker compose we'll do CD data
to jump in there type in LS once more
and we're going to grab have one piece
of information here the contents of this
ID ed25519 pub file this is your public
key and we'll need that so we'll do cat
ID blah blah blah. pub. pug. Pub and
there's my public key it's okay that you
can see mine it's public we're going to
need this key everything right before
root right here let me zoom out so it
looks cleaner we'll also need the IP
address which I forgot my IP address
already too okay cool my IP address is
this guy right here go ahead and grab
yours and now I'll take a field trip to
our rust desk clients now real quick
notice this when you first install your
rust desk client on a new computer
you'll notice that down here on the
server connection it says ready but for
a faster connection please set up your
own server which we just it however what
this means is that rust desk by default
will use public rust desk servers
meaning rust desk servers that are run
by rust desk I've been seeing rust desk
too much can we simplify that can we
abbreviate it Rd we'll call RD although
we're at the end of the video what's the
point now now for many privacy-minded
people this is an issue which is why
it's very important to set up your own
server so let's check change that right
now to change your server we'll click on
these little dots again right here and
we'll click on the network tab we'll
unlock our network settings and then
we'll click on the ID relay server here
we're going to paste in the IP address
of our rusts server I'll also paste in
the same IP address for the Relay server
I don't think we have to do that but I
feel like I it's the same it'll be the
same one and then down here for key
that'll be the public key that we just
looked at so getting back to our
terminal I'll C that file one more time
it was the pub file and I'll grab
everything including the equal sign but
right before my username so just like
this and I'll paste that here here and
click okay successful we're good to go
now if we look at our homepage again we
can now see ready without that scary
message that we're using someone else's
server we're using our server now we'll
need to set up that server on every
client so for my client here on my local
desktop I'll also go into my settings
network ID relay server and paste the
same information okay and successful and
what I'll do real quick is take note of
the ID and the onetime password onetime
password is handy because it's a theral
by nature and it's great for quick tech
support situations so I'm going to
disconnect this session and instead of
using my IP address I'm going to use the
ID of my remote computer back here so
pretending we're helping Uncle Rico here
our rust dust client will use its
configured server the server that we
just set up to go ask it about this ID
like hey do you know about this ID does
someone connected to you have this can
you connect me to them let's do it now
connect that was quick we'll put in that
onetime password that we just snagged
click okay we'll retry with our
permanent password ah and we're in
notice this time everything looks pretty
much the same except for our connection
status up here it's a direct and
encrypted connection meaning our rest
server was able to talk to the other end
the client and go oh we can actually
make a direct connection let's set that
up and boom we're connected and we're
not going through the relay for our
connection so it's faster it's better
performance now asterisk here that
doesn't mean I have a local direct
connection when you use that ID it's
going to end up talking to your relay
server if you want a true local direct
connection you want to enable that land
access and connect via IP address now
let me show you what it looks like when
you're connecting via a relay I'll
connect to my church PC and notice up
here at the top we get a different icon
relayed and encrypted connection meaning
the server's like hey I can't connect
you guys directly but we can play a
little bit of telephone I can be the in
between but I don't have to do that I
don't want to go through a relay I'll go
to my twin gate setup for the church
create a new resource for the reach
computer reach is the name of my church
by the way give myself access and
actually I'll limit it to one port
because I know it's Port 21118 wait too
many once there we go p in the IP
address connect and now I have a direct
connection now a few flyby features of
rust desk I got my recent connections
and their statuses right here oh I
didn't show you a Linux host let me just
quickly connect to my Linux guy here
boom Linux and by the way they also just
release support for a headless Linux
experience so for most Linux servers we
set up there's no head meaning they we
didn't install a guey it has no display
attached to it but they do have a quick
little way to set that up I tested it
it's not great so I wouldn't get too
excited but I'm hoping they add more to
it now you can add your favorite stuff
here I've got my favorites they even
have um Auto Discovery it'll discover
other hosts on your network that are
also running uh rust desk of course that
is going to have to be in the same
subnet to autodiscover other features
like an address book and people require
a login this is more for the pro version
of rust desk if you want to pay some
money that's neat you can see here you
really don't need it there's so much you
can do here and if you go into settings
I mean you can see there's just a ton of
stuff to do from General you can change
pretty much everything you want
including using the hardware codec of
course you want to use that wow I didn't
even show performance let me show you
that real quick let's see what should I
connect to connect to um my Mac or did
it go to sleep I think I went to sleep
let's go play a video yes I have a
million tabs open o a new chat GPT
feature all right so open AI just
dropped task as part of chat GPT that
means you can give chat GPT things to
remember there and so what are they
trying to do with but now they're adding
more fun watch as I scroll I mean this
is fantastic performance all right
that's the video remote desktop
Solutions I think this is the best one
there are others I know and they have
their different use cases but if you're
looking for near native performance near
native client performance rust desk is
the way to go I feel I love the project
I really hope the devs continue to
support it Pour their love into it and
make it more awesome oh and I didn't
even show you the phone I mean that's
pretty sick let's see I'll disconnect it
from my Mac here and boom I'm in and
there is no word when the feature is
released to free users aome all right
that's the video do you have a better
way of doing what I'm doing here I would
love to know comment below also comment
below if you just want to say hi hi