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How do you Remotely Manage the Family's Computers?

posted by martyb on Sunday April 30 2017, @01:22PM   
from the Ask-Soylent dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Recently, someone in my family was not able to get into their home PC with their password, and called for assistance. This means having to drive down to the machine to see what they are doing, and log in with the appropriate account that can reset that password. Work commitments preclude driving there right away to see what is happening, and I am trying to locate a remote access solution. If they were logged into the machine, I could use some sort of remote assistance tool, but that is not an option in this case. There is the possibility of setting up SSH or OpenVPN to access the machine via the Internet, but I am not certain leaving those tools running all the time is the smartest idea in this day and age.

What recommendations do the Soylent community have for securely managing a machine over the Internet when someone is not logged into it?

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Original Submission

• Re:ssh Re:ssh (Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Sunday April 30 2017, @06:11PM (1 child)

  by Grishnakh (2831) on Sunday April 30 2017, @06:11PM (#501935)

  Well they don't ask me for help fixing their HVAC, since I'm not an HVAC repair tech, and they don't ask me for help in their gardens, since I know nothing about gardening, and they don't ask me for help with their medical ailments, because I'm not a medical doctor. So why exactly should they expect me to be able to help them with Windows?

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
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• Re:ssh (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 30 2017, @06:25PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 30 2017, @06:25PM (#501940)

  So why exactly should they expect me to be able to help them with Windows?

  Lemme guess . . . because, . . . they are the pricks of the family?

  Parent