self-hosted/FOSS remote-access support gateway
One of the problems with having switched over a number of relatives to Linux is that I'm "the guy" when they have issues, and I can't always get over to help them in a timely manner. A lot of the time most stuff is working just fine and it's just a matter of popping into the desktop and fixing a bad link or a naughty plugin that's slipped into Chrome etc, but it DOES require being able to see what they see.
Windows has a system where you can "request assistance" and then provide a code for access at which point it shares your desktop. There are similar systems where one can get a link in email and click it for support.
I'd like to find a system that I can host myself to allow users to queue up for support at which point I can pop into their system, without needing to open ports on their routers or using something hackish like forwarding a VNC port to an SSH server etc
I use https://github.com/Ylianst/MeshCentral
For this usecase. This also lets me do things like run admin cmd commands. It should be noted, however, that the Windows UAC prompt won't show up in a VNC session by default, you either need to configure UAC, or set up RDP.
Been using it for years at work. Really awesome piece of free software.
Yeah the UAC issue happens with a lot of stuff, including (last time I checked) screen-shares with Teams