Teamviewer or Anydesk? (or something else)

[Rob_D]

We've been asked to look into occasional remote access for up to 3 people to connect to their desktops from home.

During the lockdowns we had some Teamviewer licenses but we let them lapse since we came back and no-one needed them. But now we've been asked to bring them back, but since it was such a pain getting the licenses the first time around, I'm inclined to see if there's anything better to be had.

So Teamviewer vs Anydesk? Any opinions? Or anyone have any other recommendations?

 

Thanks for your help, everyone!

[timbo343]

Ultraviewer?

Zoho assist in unattend mode?

[midweek]

I ran a self hosted RustDesk server for a bit. Learning curve as you might expect but free.

[MatthewL]

I'd be against this, if they need to access work stuff a laptop should be provided with VPN back into the network.  Unless you have a suitable BYOD solution in place which sounds like you don't.

[Alex0x7F]

I wouldn't entertain the thought of remote access for non technical staff.

0365/Google Workspace for any file storage needs, or if they must have access to the network, then I'd explore a VPN, with my preference being Cisco AnyConnect's Secure client using SSO & MFA enforced.

[dhicks]

On 28/03/2025 at 12:18, Rob_D said:

Or anyone have any other recommendations?

 

We use a (free) Apache Guacamole server behind a Cloudflare tunnel (free for less than 50 users), which allows for authentication via users 2FA-protected Google / Microsoft accounts. We have ours pointing at a dedicated remote desktop server, but you could point individual users at specific devices if needed. I collected the setup needed into a Github project - it probably needs a bit of tinkering with / updating:

 

https://github.com/dhicks6345789/remote-gateway