Low Powered PC to act as remote desktop Server

[fozzie bear]

I look after the IT infrastructure for our local community hall. We have an Internet Cafe with three windows 10 PCs, a streaming webcam and hopefully soon a CCTV system.

I would like to be able to remotely access the Lan so I can wake up the PCs and RDP into them to install updates etc. Also to access the network switch to enable the streaming camera and also view the NVR once installed.

I was thinking about installing a low powered always on PC which I can access remotely using Anydesk or Teamviewer etc. Once on the desktop I can use WOL tools to wake up the PCs and RDP into them. Would an old PC with Ubuntu be suitable or even a Raspberry Pi 3 or 4. I believe I can install Remmina on both Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi as an RDP client.

I need to access a desktop on this PC so I can user a web browser and other tools. I don't want to use command line or SSH with Putty etc.
Any suggestions or thoughts welcome.
For info the hall has a 200mbps FTTP connection with a static IP address.
Fozzie

 

[bbunge]

I look after the IT infrastructure for our local community hall. We have an Internet Cafe with three windows 10 PCs, a streaming webcam and hopefully soon a CCTV system.

I would like to be able to remotely access the Lan so I can wake up the PCs and RDP into them to install updates etc. Also to access the network switch to enable the streaming camera and also view the NVR once installed.

I was thinking about installing a low powered always on PC which I can access remotely using Anydesk or Teamviewer etc. Once on the desktop I can use WOL tools to wake up the PCs and RDP into them. Would an old PC with Ubuntu be suitable or even a Raspberry Pi 3 or 4. I believe I can install Remmina on both Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi as an RDP client.

I need to access a desktop on this PC so I can user a web browser and other tools. I don't want to use command line or SSH with Putty etc.
Any suggestions or thoughts welcome.
For info the hall has a 200mbps FTTP connection with a static IP address.
Fozzie

Your idea of using a Pi is good! I would use a Pi-4 4GB if you can find one. The Bullseye 64 bit would be my OS choice and the Raspberry OS works well. An alternate is the Raspberry 64 bit OS with KDE-Plasma desktop. There is a Teamviewer for Raspberry 64. To manage the internal PC's I would use VNC client the the VNC Viewer on the Pi. A good case with a cooling fan should be used. I have a DeskPi-Lite case which works well for me.

For years I managed a couple of remote LAN's. Mostly I set up OpenVPN server on the routers then connected with an OpenVPN client on my "home" PC's. The WIndows desktops at the remote site had VNC installed. I also had a safety Windows PC (Dell Optiplex 9020 i3 mini desktop) set up with Teamviewer in case the VPN connection failed, which it did several times. I was able to use the Windows PC to reset the router. Both sites had static WAN IP addresses.

Teamviewer is free to use for personal and not for profit use. Their terms of use changed a while back and they noticed frequent use to the same IP address and I was locked out. I was able to email them and have the block removed. You may be able to email them in advance to preclude issues.

 

[sfx2000]

Teamviewer is free to use for personal and not for profit use. Their terms of use changed a while back and they noticed frequent use to the same IP address and I was locked out.

Raspbian includes a 5 seat free license for RealVNC - and then one doesn't have to deal with the mess that is Teamviewer (yes, I use teamviewer all the time, and we have a license - doesn't mean it's good at what it does).

VNC Connect for Raspberry Pi | VNC® Connect

VNC Connect remote access software is included with Raspberry Pi OS. Connect to your Raspberry Pi from anywhere in the world, experiment and monitor equipment remotely, simply and securely.

www.realvnc.com

Note that it is not limited to RPi's - other remote hosts can be windows, mac, whatever...

 

[fozzie bear]

Your idea of using a Pi is good! I would use a Pi-4 4GB if you can find one. The Bullseye 64 bit would be my OS choice and the Raspberry OS works well. An alternate is the Raspberry 64 bit OS with KDE-Plasma desktop. There is a Teamviewer for Raspberry 64. To manage the internal PC's I would use VNC client the the VNC Viewer on the Pi. A good case with a cooling fan should be used. I have a DeskPi-Lite case which works well for me.

For years I managed a couple of remote LAN's. Mostly I set up OpenVPN server on the routers then connected with an OpenVPN client on my "home" PC's. The WIndows desktops at the remote site had VNC installed. I also had a safety Windows PC (Dell Optiplex 9020 i3 mini desktop) set up with Teamviewer in case the VPN connection failed, which it did several times. I was able to use the Windows PC to reset the router. Both sites had static WAN IP addresses.

Teamviewer is free to use for personal and not for profit use. Their terms of use changed a while back and they noticed frequent use to the same IP address and I was locked out. I was able to email them and have the block removed. You may be able to email them in advance to preclude issues.

Many thanks BBunge for your helpful reply.
I have not really used VNC for remote control. Do you know if it includes WOL tools that will send magic packets to wake up the PCs. If not I may have to rely on etherwake assuming this will install on Raspbian or Bullseye. I could use anydesk to access the Pi and not have to worry about Teamviewer restrictions. I know they have a build for Raspbian but not yet Bullseye unfortunately. What is the desktop experience like with VNC is it equal or better than RDP. Can it be used before log in to the account? The thing about RDP is it uses the same log on credentials and you dont have to install any third party software for it to work as its baked in to Windows 10. These PCs are tirned off the majority of the time so have to be woken to be accessed. They are also protected by RebootRestore RX which restores the image every time they reboot.