Table of Contents
Remote access
NOTE: This is an advanced topic. Not for most people ๐
Why remote access is useful:
- Troubleshoot AV issues
a. for the Mandarin service aunties and uncles
b. for deeper technical issues (esoteric but true example - someone upgraded OBS or Bitfocus Companion by a mjor version which broke some default configuration, preventing it to scan USB devices / thus the Stream Deck is non-functional)
- Do IT maintenance in your own time
โฆ all without needing to be physically at church!
What is needed to achieve this:
a. VPN
NOTE: If you've NEVER set this up a software-defined mesh virtual private network (SDN VPN) before, be prepared to spend some weeks on this to get your head around it. But it's worthwhile. ๐
You need to put a VPN 'node' somewhere on your church network. Either on the router itself, or a box attached to the LAN.
- We have our own OpenWrt router
- e.g. NanoPi R2S / Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS (they're same same)
Next is to choose a VPN technology:
Tailscale
- pros: easier to set up for single user use
ZeroTier
- pros: more flexibility with sharing access between multiple people/user accounts
- cons: more paywall for max 25 device limit on free plan
Wireguard
- pros: the open-source base of Tailscale, not tied to Tailscale's auth system
- cons: most work to set up (it's all manual)
and forget OpenVPN - that's a thing of the past!
b. Wake-on-LAN
Turn on in BIOS for cold booting, and Windows device manager > ethernet controller to enable wake from sleep
Bonus tip:
MeshCentral is handy to manage all your computers (including across Sunday school rooms, office, etc). Requires deployment to cloud.