A couple weeks ago I received an email from REALVNC stating they are eliminating the free version of VNC. I use VNC to access a few remote camera systems that do not have a static IP. The systems that have a static IP I connect headless with SSH using Bitvise. So I started researching other free remote offerings. One opensource product I found is called MeshCentral. It is a small piece of server software that can be run on Windows, Mac, or Linux. After installation you install agent software on the remote computers. The remote computers can be Windows, Mac, Linux or Android. I installed the server software on a Raspberry Pi 4. Then, installed the agent software on a Windows computer, a Ubuntu computer, on a couple Raspberry Pi SBC and my Android Phone for testing. After a couple days of playing with the server and agents I started adding computers to the system. In the field I have 40+ remote camera systems that utilize a Raspberry Pi or other SBC for camera control. I have now installed MeshCentral on most. With MeshCentral I can log into a remote desktop if the Pi or SBC has a desktop installed. I can log into a command line session or view files on the Pi or remote computer and transfer files between my desktop and the remote. One nice feature is I can log into the server and have a dashboard that will show all the remote computers and their status.
Hope this helps anybody else that relies on remote access to systems for trouble shooting and monitoring.
Hope this helps anybody else that relies on remote access to systems for trouble shooting and monitoring.
