Rustdesk's lesser known features (github.com)
from iii@mander.xyz to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 19:22
https://mander.xyz/post/42485009

Rustdesk started as an open-source alternative to TeamViewer. Now, it offers more than just remote desktop access, making it handy for casual self-hosting.

With no need for (dyn)DNS, port forwarding, or a VPN, you can get:

I think it’s a solid choice if you have a simple one-server setup.

#selfhosted

threaded - newest

Breadhax0r@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 19:51 next collapse

Ive been wanting to try out rust desk for a few weeks now but im not currently in a position where I can test it out.

I saw it uses a public relay server and they have a subscription model to self host, and I’m not particularly interested in either of those options. Are you able to self host a server for free if youre just connecting to a single computer?

30p87@feddit.org on 25 Nov 19:58 next collapse

yes

Anafabula@discuss.tchncs.de on 25 Nov 20:15 next collapse

The open source server allows unlimited connections I think. The point of the paid server is user & device management, shared address book and some other enterprise features

rtxn@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 20:49 collapse

You can host the open-source ID and Relay servers for simple remote access at no cost. The pro subscription is mainly about account and device management.

:::spoiler compose.yaml

services:
  hbbs:
    container_name: hbbs
    image: rustdesk/rustdesk-server:latest
    command: hbbs
    volumes:
      - ./data:/root
    network_mode: "host"
    depends_on:
      - hbbr
    restart: always

  hbbr:
    container_name: hbbr
    image: rustdesk/rustdesk-server:latest
    command: hbbr
    volumes:
      - ./data:/root
    network_mode: "host"
    restart: always

:::

[deleted] on 25 Nov 20:04 next collapse
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cron@feddit.org on 25 Nov 20:21 collapse

I think its a completely different use case. MobaXterm is a fancy ssh/rdp tool with some extra features, while rustdesk is an alternative to teamviewer or anydesk - tools for remote support.

Disclaimer: I haven’t used rustdesk yet, I have no need for this use case.

irmadlad@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 20:59 collapse

Tunneling (similar to SSH

I guess that’s what I focused on. me skuzi

fleem@piefed.zeromedia.vip on 25 Nov 20:24 next collapse

didn’t i hear some off-putting shit about rust desk kinda recently?

passenger@sopuli.xyz on 25 Nov 21:33 next collapse

I would not touch it, seems very sketchy, and with this sort of program you need total trust

ISOmorph@feddit.org on 25 Nov 21:36 collapse

What’s the sketchy part tho?

passenger@sopuli.xyz on 25 Nov 21:53 next collapse

It seems they were trying to hide the app being Chinese, added a trusted certificate on your machine without prompting, complaints about not really being open source, etc. It doesn’t look very good to me at this point.

Search around a bit and you will find these issues being raised by people, at the same time the answers fron the team seem very dismissive and amount to “please no politics here”.

Check the wikipedia page edits as well, weird stuff. I don’t like weird stuff when choosing a remote control software.

Rather paying Anydesk than using this. At this point at least.

Edit: to add, rustdesk was using and sending data to a chinese server for some reason. At least they got an EU one instead, at least according to wikipedia, but that could just resend whatever data forward. This is all just what I see on the net though. But, enough for me to choose something else.

rtxn@lemmy.world on 25 Nov 22:58 next collapse

If this is as significant an issue as you imply, please link some credible sources.

As far as I can tell, the “Chinese server” (or EU server) is just a public ID and Relay server, and necessary for the application to function unless a self-hosted server is used.

passenger@sopuli.xyz on 25 Nov 23:27 collapse

It doesn’t need to be, I just won’t go near it if they communicate like this and do stuff like change their users’ system settings without prompting. You can do a search for rustdesk controversy and have a look yourself. Just looking at how they hide the company’s chinese origins and their communication style when they are asked for clarification… That’s enough for me. Everyone should be paranoid when installing apps, and this is for remote control, no less.

Edit 2: see also their claims of open source while people could not compile a working version without a pre compiled binary blob. Maybe they fixed that? Or not?

Edit: I want to add, I want an open source software like that, I hope they would turn up good. Just going to watch from over here.

queerdo@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 26 Nov 02:20 collapse

Can you please provide any sources for any of your claims?

passenger@sopuli.xyz on 26 Nov 05:50 collapse
queerdo@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 26 Nov 02:19 collapse

I did some digging and there’s no real basis for most of these claims. The company seems to be backed by a weird commercial OSS VC, with a founder with a hand in crypto bullshit, but that doesn’t mean that the application is insecure. Also, for what its worth, I couldn’t find any links to China outside of the rendezvous server thing.

I checked the wiki page edits - not sure which one you’re referring to but I didn’t see anything malicous or suspicious.

This article summed it up well hackaday.com/…/this-week-in-security-forksquattin…

TL;DR it’s not an issue

BCsven@lemmy.ca on 26 Nov 02:30 next collapse

Binary blobs

passenger@sopuli.xyz on 26 Nov 05:56 collapse

Chinese company profile

tracxn.com/…/__hVv0PUAcFB2LfybEPDvvPkJf14Mc7PfmkS…

News piece about them

inf.news/…/b99963560cecae8e1dfe347c68e36ff8.html

None of this means much else than that I will not use it myself, at least yet. I don’t trust it

queerdo@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 26 Nov 06:08 collapse

That news source is a joke. Go to the homepage and its filled with weird anti Chinese stuff about cannibalism in Shanghai! The first article on the homepage is:

Emperor Kangxi imprisoned him and raised him like a pig, so out of boredom he could only have children for fun, resulting in him fathering 29 children.

This is not a credible news source.

The “Chinese company profile” you linked is a VC research page, not an authoritative source.

There could be weirdness going on here though despite all that. The claim they are based in Singapore while Huabing Zhou of Wuhan University clearly has input (when I looked him up, the RustDesk team page was a search result on DDG, despite his name not appearing on the linked page) is a little odd. But as long as all the code is open I’m not too worried for self-hosters.

passenger@sopuli.xyz on 26 Nov 06:42 collapse

Thanks for the additional digging.

Is it totally open source? Because I am not suited to verify this - I can only see that at some point it was not open source while claiming to be, and relied on binary blobs. Their server side code? Cannot know what is in there (of course). Running your own server? Cannot really vet the code either, so until it becomes still more popular I cannot trust it yet.

I mean, it is probably fine, I hope it is.

They have scrubbed Zhou from the company info page. They were listed as founder before among the two other people (who may or may not be real - this is another question mark I saw). This scrubbing could, of course be non nefarious. But I think this could have and should have been communicated better.

But instead they seem to shut down discussion: github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/discussions/1159#dis…

None of this has to mean anything much but I personally will continue with paid options still for now and keep hoping rd would turn out alright!

BCsven@lemmy.ca on 26 Nov 02:32 collapse

Binary blobs

queerdo@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 26 Nov 02:22 collapse

Looks like overworked devs did some pretty bad practice with certs, not as big of a deal as people are making it out to be. hackaday.com/…/this-week-in-security-forksquattin…

Smash@lemmy.self-hosted.site on 25 Nov 20:31 next collapse

It can also stream 4K@60fps without quality loss or latency no problem

WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works on 28 Nov 16:50 collapse

its definetly not lossless, but it works quite efficiently

Smash@lemmy.self-hosted.site on 28 Nov 21:19 collapse

It looks way better than TeamViewer or AnyDesk, just like it would be local (similar to how RemoteDektop looks). Of course it can begin to stutter when watching videos ect but everything else is fine.

suzune@ani.social on 25 Nov 20:38 collapse

I use Rustdesk to access PCs and embedded devices from other PCs and embedded devices. Mostly doing remote support to avoid driving.

It’s easy to set up with a container-based server.

I don’t have to care about licenses and crap like that. It just works.