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Thread: Remote desktop through the browser?

  1. #1
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    Remote desktop through the browser?

    Hello, I'm unsure how many people ask this. But a lot of people wondering including myself if it is possible to do a remote desktop through the browser? I know using a remote desktop program like RealVNC or windows remote desktop even teamviewer. But Myself including a lot of people i know are wondering if it is possible in a web browser?


    Joseph

  2. #2
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    Re: Remote desktop through the browser?

    I have never come across this before but a quick search found https://remotedesktop.google.com/
    This is for Google Chrome that I use only when on Android so can tell you nothing more about it but it could be useful as long as security is good enough, and again, I do not know about that so it will have to be investigated a lot more before you decide whether or not it's for you.

    Depending on exactly what you want or need to do have you thought about using X-forwarding using ssh?

  3. #3
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    Re: Remote desktop through the browser?

    Quote Originally Posted by josephchrzempiec View Post
    Hello, I'm unsure how many people ask this. But a lot of people wondering including myself if it is possible to do a remote desktop through the browser?
    Yes. Been there, done that. There are various approaches you could take to achieve this.

    I have used all of these at various points in the past:

    Chrome Remote Desktop
    https://remotedesktop.google.com/

    NoVNC
    https://novnc.com/info.html

    Apache Guacamole
    https://guacamole.apache.org/

    Cendio ThinLinc
    https://www.cendio.com/thinlinc/download

    • ThinLinc is a commercial product
    • It is free to use at home for as long as you don't have more than 10 x concurrent users
    • Good installers, good documentation, easy to get running


    Oracle Secure Global Desktop
    https://www.oracle.com/virtualizatio...-overview.html

    • Secure Global Desktop is a commercial ($$$) Enterprise product
    • Can be VERY pricey ($$$)
    • Very long list of Enterprise features, e.g. failover array, integration into LDAP, Active Directory, and what not
    • Excellent documentation
    • You need a server OS such as Oracle Solaris, Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Oracle Linux to run this
    • Requires you to have an "Oracle Login" to download the packages
    • Requires you to have a valid support ID to download patches for this software



    Then there's this one. I have never used this myself and can't tell you if it's "good" or not. I just know that it exists.

    DWService
    https://www.dwservice.net/en/home.html

    Last edited by scorp123; August 2nd, 2021 at 10:46 PM.

  4. #4
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    Re: Remote desktop through the browser?

    One side question though is why are you connecting to the remote system in such a way? What are you doing on the remote system that needs the full desktop session? There may be a sleeker solution to what you want to achieve......

  5. #5
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    Re: Remote desktop through the browser?

    A remote desktop over a browser connection adds a huge layer of security risks. HTTPS has lots of issues, unless you get everything perfect. TLS versions under 1.3 have all been cracked, for example. Better to limit that security issue by avoiding browsers for this need, when ssh + X/Windows can accomplish the same things. Every workstation should have both of those capabilities, so there isn't anything new to install. Just a few config lines (which are the defaults already) should be added. Securing ssh is required and a well-traveled path with plenty of how-to articles.

  6. #6
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    Re: Remote desktop through the browser?

    Quote Originally Posted by TheFu View Post
    A remote desktop over a browser connection adds a huge layer of security risks.
    Totally agree. If I had to implement something like this these days I'd do it with X2go and SSH keys. Having access to your desktop environment via a browser is in theory "nice" and all that but you are at the same time opening a huge can of worms.

    The only area where I could see a potential benefit if you do browser-based desktops is e.g. if you do it in an Intranet-only setting and all your client devices are in fact some kind of thin clients that only have a browser locally installed. But this means you'd also need to have the required computational firepower on the server side to handle x-100 simultaneous user desktops and are able to deal with the CPU-, RAM- and storage-requirements such a setup comes with. Been there, done that. Such a scenario is only really interesting for very large companies.
    Last edited by scorp123; August 3rd, 2021 at 06:51 PM.

  7. #7
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    Re: Remote desktop through the browser?

    Agreed, but I'd go with TinyCore Lite and x2go for a desktop.

    Plus, there are efficiencies when end-users are running their desktops on the same system. A week after they move over, I show them how to share files between their userids and setup a directory area for each team to use for their work. Those teams quickly stop using their HOME directories for work files and start using the shared storage area. Then they learn to use collaboration-capable tools which allow multiple people to edit the same document concurrently, showing live modifications to everyone. This is where people running personal computers, alone, outside a team environment really have no clues. They often thing they need to copy files around, because that's the way they did it on Windows.

    It doesn't take long, but until they are shown the capabilities, as they are ready to learn, then they will do it the same old, slower, way.

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