Set up Remote Desktop Connection - How to connect a remote computer?

As you are aware the current situation due to the threat of COVID-19. The world is implementing very tight restrictions and the policies to avoid communities spreading of COVID -19. If we look into the IT sector, many companies are already allowing the employee to continue their work from home or allowing the employee to take the leave who are coming from high-risk areas. Anyway, would hope the world beat COVID-19 very soon.

Let us move to the section, today we are going to talk about 'work from home' setup and will demonstrate two tools which help the Users to connect the office workstations remotely from anywhere in the globe.

Note: This solution is only for SMB and others may have VPN, RSA and another advanced setup to connect the systems from outside networks.

Prerequisites to setup unattended Remote Access
Operating System – Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD

Tools – Chrome, AnyDesk, Chrome Remote Desktop Extension

AnyDesk Unattended Remote Access Connection

AnyDesk is one of the most popular tools available in the current market. This tool, not a freeware but it provides free remote access to personal computers which mean we can use this tool legally for a non-business purpose. Let us move to installation.

Step 1: Download AnyDesk from the site - https://anydesk.com/en , and click Install AnyDesk

Step 2: Check the settings and click Accept & Install

Step 3: Configure AnyDesk from the welcome screen, click Set an alias

Step 4: Type the custom alias as your wish and click Register

Step 5: Alias registered

Step 6: Click Set a Password

Step 7: Enable ‘Allow always’ and ‘Enable unattended access’

Step 8: Set a Password for unattended access

Step 9: The AnyDesk tool is ready to accept the remote connection without a manual accept

Let us test the remote connection, here I am using my mobile at the other end. I had already installed the AnyDesk App from Play Store, if you don’t just install it.

Step 10: Open AnyDesk on the end device (here my mobile) and type Remote Address (Alias)

Step 11: Wait for a few second for the ‘Authorization’ window. (Also another window will pop up on the remote side for the manual accept but leave it and no need any actions)

Step 13: Remote Connection is established successfully.

The remote access test is successfully completed without any error, this is a basic setup to connect the remote host in the emergency situation.

Chrome Remote Desktop

It is a remote desktop tool developed by Google and that allows the users to connect the remote machine through a proprietary protocol. Let us look how can configure

Step 1: Browse Chrome Remote Desktop and login in with Gmail (need to use same email id in both ends)

Step 2: Click ‘Install’ if get the pop-up or Click ‘Download Remote Desktop’

Step 3: Add the Remote Desktop Extension - Click ’Add to Chrome’

Step 4: The required .msi file will download automatically in background

Step 5: Click ‘Accept & Install’

Step 6: Click ‘Yes’ and install the .msi tool

Step 7: Wait to finish the installation

Step 8: Type the computer name as your wish

Step 9: Enter the new PIN and Click ‘Start’

Step 10: The remote desktop service is online, which means ready to accept the remote connection.

We have successfully configured the Chrome Remote Desktop and the next is testing the service.

Step 11: Browse Chrome Remote Desk on the other end and log in with the same email id we used in the above.

Step 12: We can see the device as online, just click and enter the PIN to connect the remote host.

Step 13: The remote connection is established now.

Topic Conclusion

In this article is I explained two different tools to connect remote desktop through the internet. The main advantage of both tools is free as well no need an additional setup to configure a remote desktop. In the other post, we had discussed an open-source VPN, that tool also doing the same function but it needs additional hardware setup for full configuration.

Stay healthy and tune for the coming articles.