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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?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 30 2017, @01:56PM (14 children)
ssh is fine if you set it up properly, assuming they are running linox. (if they are running windows they get no support. that would not be helping them. that would be enabling.) 4096+ keys, non default port, not root access, etc.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 30 2017, @02:06PM (7 children)
You do realize that you can run SSHd on windows too? Powershell once you get there, or worst case port tunneling for RDP or regular GUI management tools.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Sunday April 30 2017, @02:36PM (6 children)
That would require learning Powershell. Why would I want to waste my time doing that? And how would I learn that anyway, since I don't have a Windows box to practice on, and would rather do almost anything than use Windows in my spare time?
If they're using Windows, they can go to the Microsoft Store or Geek Squad and get some help there.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 30 2017, @03:19PM (3 children)
sounds like you are the prick of the family, and dont i expect they would be asking for help from you anyway.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Sunday April 30 2017, @06:11PM (1 child)
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?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 30 2017, @06:25PM
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?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by SDRefugee on Sunday April 30 2017, @07:56PM
Seems like its the same here as over on /. .... All the asshole trolls post as AC.. Guess they either don't have an account or more likely are afraid of making trollish comments with their identity revealed for all to see...
America should be proud of Edward Snowden, the hero, whether they know it or not..
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Sunday April 30 2017, @07:50PM
That would require learning Powershell. Why would I want to waste my time doing that? And how would I learn that anyway, since I don't have a Windows box to practice on, and would rather do almost anything than use Windows in my spare time?
Actually, you can run PowerShell everywhere [github.com]!
Now get going and clear that gay porn adware off of Aunt Lizzie's Windows 10 box!
[Not sure which is ickier, gay porn adware or Powershell on Linux]
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 30 2017, @09:31PM
isnt powershell open source now? its possible in the future you might see it come to linux
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday April 30 2017, @03:44PM (5 children)
assuming they are running linox
My kids share a raspbian which is debian linux for a raspberry pi, as a desktop, for those times when the on screen keyboard of their school issued and admined ipads doesn't cut it, or they just want a bigger screen to work on stuff. It doesn't get a huge amount of use, but it gets some use.
Every couple years I stick a newer faster pi in (sometimes needing new case) and a newly burned flash.
That's really all the support I need to do.
The only problem they ever have is when they plug in a USB headset there's only about 1/3 chance the audio out will work, because it will seemingly randomly output the earphone/speaker jack, the HDMI-audio, or the USB headset.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday April 30 2017, @04:34PM
Linux audio - frustrating users for 30 years and counting.
Why must you hear Biff Bark?
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 30 2017, @05:59PM (3 children)
Maybe there's a sysctl to set the default sound device?
sysctl -a | grep ..
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday May 01 2017, @12:22PM (2 children)
Its a UI thing invariably what the kids think should work is not the default or the last used or whatever it ends up doing.
An interesting failure mode is "most" HDMI monitors don't have speakers but "most" HDMI televisions do have speakers, and there's a bug in the HDMI spec where you can output audio to the HDMI port even if the device its connected to has no audio hardware... They can implement all this idiotic DRM stuff but not simple audio UI...
Its kind of like if you have a TV without four HDMI inputs you'll get endless complaining about not having enough inputs or not having a switch at all, and if you have four inputs you'll get the same amount of complaining about its impossible UI. I solved this familial problem with my TV using a physical HDMI switchbox with little indicator LEDs. Probably the "correct" way to fix desktop sound is to eliminate all sound output hardware except one digital output and if people want multiple inputs or multiple outputs and are not functioning at the virtualization level inside their heads, then they get external switch box or literally swap cables. Its a hardware design failure to give people hardware they can't mentally handle.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday May 01 2017, @06:30PM (1 child)
HDMI protocol nor EDID have no provision for "Do you have audio output?" ..? if it's missing it's a really crappy protocol.
Sometimes you just have to realize however that some people are of a bad design and can't handle a lot of things that require thinking. I will however admit that audio/video output setups can be messy.
Like if you have two USB sound outputs and one digital amplifier. If you switch USB ports then the computers will loose default output setting. And you also need to control the switch through some non-standard driver that has no OS support anyway. If you switch the digital sound after the USB soundcard it may make the digital amplifier loose sync and still needs some non-standard controlling.
And the standard issue that most audio/video equipment lack a good automated control input. So it's all got to be some IR diode with MCU cludge with Ethernet.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday May 01 2017, @06:55PM
HDMI protocol nor EDID have no provision for "Do you have audio output?" ..? if it's missing it's a really crappy protocol.
Well there is the issue of bugs and I can assure you that a pi3 with a rando no name chinese LCD monitor from a couple years back is thrilled to try and send HDMI audio to the monitor.
It is also possible the hardware is fine and compatible and the protocol is perfect but the budget monitor simply terminated the audio out into empty space. No amp, no speakers, same chip and everything plus an extra $5 would have gotten a monitor with HDMI speakers... Maybe.
And the standard issue that most audio/video equipment lack a good automated control input. So it's all got to be some IR diode with MCU cludge with Ethernet.
Its surprising how bad that works. There's a cottage industry around trying to get that to work for mythtv people to connect a cable box (or satellite) to their system and I got everything working except reliable channel selection, just couldn't get it to work. Not much worth watching on TV anyway.