A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
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It sounds like what you really need is a mesh VPN not really KVM.
Install Tailscale on all the machines and you're set.
Alternatively Hamachi.
Edit: You could also install tail scale on a single dedicated device on your destination network and configure it as a Tailscale router. This would enable you to access any IP-based device on the network without that device having Tailscale installed on it.
Or Netbird, both work very well and Netbird can be completely self hosted; Tailscale requires Headscale AFAIK.
Ooh, I'd forgotten about Netbird!
Thanks for the reminder to test it as an alternative to Tailscale.
It sounds like what you really need is a mesh VPN not really KVM.
Ding!
Amaze! I’m super excited to give this a try. If it works as described this will probably do everything I need it to. Thanks!
I was gonna suggest WireGuard but these are probably less work which is what a business wants.
Another bonus is you have more than just Remote Desktop to manage things.
RustDesk is great, you can run the server on your own hardware, and set up the clients for unattended access. No need for a VPN, as long as all clients on both ends can find your server.
RustDesk is a great option too for just Remote Access. Though I find it's performance a bit slow, and with VPN I can use any tool I need same as on the LAN (my workflow is unchanged).
I do use RustDesk for the adhoc situations (friend needs help/new machine, etc). It's faster to setup for ad-hoc support vs adding a Tailscale client.
Also check out meshcentral. Important thing aboout meshcentral is that it lets you hijack the users screen, show you can show them step by step through things. RDP doesn't do that, it kicks the other user out.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| IP | Internet Protocol |
| PoE | Power over Ethernet |
| SSH | Secure Shell for remote terminal access |
| VNC | Virtual Network Computing for remote desktop access |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network |
5 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 16 acronyms.
[Thread #160 for this comm, first seen 12th Mar 2026, 22:20] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
Are you absolutely sure you need a KVM over the network? It sounds like you just need remote access to the computers.
Solution one: Nevermind, forget I said anything about RDP. I should stop giving advice after being awake for 20 hours.
Solution two: use RustDesk. It's a FOSS remote desktop solution similar to TeamViewer. You can run the ID and Relay servers on your own hardware (which I strongly recommend) if you don't want to use RustDesk's own. You can connect the remote computers to the server without exposing them to the internet.
You'll need port forwarding to expose RDP yo the internet
No. Do NOT do this. RDP isn't designed for the internet, it's a security hole, even more so in a small business where they aren't going to use advanced security (2FA, certs, etc).
Remote access should always be over a secure connection, such as a VPN.
Never port-forward RDP - you're just begging to get owned.
Fuck, I'm an idiot. I really shouldn't be giving advice when I'm sleep-deprived like this. I completely forgot that when I used RDP, I did it through an SSH tunnel.
Removed.
Nope, bad idea.
Lots of good alternatives advice already here but I have a couple comets and they work pretty well! They don’t require cloud access except for updates if you want them, I think it has Tailscale built in as well. Their newest one has an HDMI pass through as well which is handy in some situations. I have the PoE version of the other one and it works the same way, the power control kits work too! I also have a jet KVM and it’s fine, I like the comet better I think! They have also open sourced their cloud thing so you can centrally manage them all, it’s pretty neat!
I'm happy with my NanoKVMs