[SOLVED] Requirements for Remote Desktop

[2ms]

I am thinking of building a Threadripper machine with some GPUs for rendering. But I often need to render both at home and at my office elsewhere. Can anyone tell me about how easy it is to use Remote Desktop for the purpose of being able to use a powerful machine at two different places? What are the requirements for this? It certainly would be nice to be able to have good rendering speeds at both of my work locations, but I can't afford two new workstations.

 

[kanewolf]

I am thinking of building a Threadripper machine with some GPUs for rendering. But I often need to render both at home and at my office elsewhere. Can anyone tell me about how easy it is to use Remote Desktop for the purpose of being able to use a powerful machine at two different places? What are the requirements for this? It certainly would be nice to be able to have good rendering speeds at both of my work locations, but I can't afford two new workstations.

Remote desktop won't render in two places. It will always render in the physical location of the hardware. You would have to copy the files to the machine to render.
Remote desktop is kind of like a browser access to a PC.

 

[Math Geek]

as said above, you would have to transfer all the data to be rendered to your home pc from work. not bad on a nice fast connection but if you're on a slow connection this would take too long to be useful as of course the rendered file has to be sent back to the office when done.

setting up and using remote desktop itself is very easy and the connecting computer does not have to be powerful at all. it is basically just the monitor/mouse/keyboard for the other pc so low end hardware is fine.

there are A LOT of security risks with using remote desktop however so you will want to go the extra mile in making sure it is protected. such as i always use a 512 bit pki key to access it, connect through a vpn or other encrypted connection and only turn it on when i need it. there are a ton of bots out there looking for RDP machines to exploit and i promise if you turn it on, you will be found by those bots!!

it's not a terrible idea you have so long as you have the speedy internet connection needed to transfer your data back and forth in a reasonable amount of time and understand how to secure that connection.

 

[kanewolf]

as said above, you would have to transfer all the data to be rendered to your home pc from work. not bad on a nice fast connection but if you're on a slow connection this would take too long to be useful as of course the rendered file has to be sent back to the office when done.

setting up and using remote desktop itself is very easy and the connecting computer does not have to be powerful at all. it is basically just the monitor/mouse/keyboard for the other pc so low end hardware is fine.

there are A LOT of security risks with using remote desktop however so you will want to go the extra mile in making sure it is protected. such as i always use a 512 bit pki key to access it, connect through a vpn or other encrypted connection and only turn it on when i need it. there are a ton of bots out there looking for RDP machines to exploit and i promise if you turn it on, you will be found by those bots!!

it's not a terrible idea you have so long as you have the speedy internet connection needed to transfer your data back and forth in a reasonable amount of time and understand how to secure that connection.

And your office approves of it. You are using a device that (to them) has security or privacy issues. Mixing personal hardware and work tasks is often prohibited.

 

[Math Geek]

good point, that is also very important to consider. many offices don't allow personal machines due to licensing issues and other considerations.

at least accessing the home machine from work is less risky for the office than the other way around. the home machine will be the main machine at risk as it has the RDP port open and the service running. the office machine would only be making the connection to the host.

other thought would be if the office wants their data going off site to be processed. they may not want to risk anything "leaking" to the outside world.

 

[2ms]

Thanks for the advice and warning on being careful with security. The "office" is me in coworking space rather than an employer. I guess I would use OneDrive or Dropbox to transfer files between the two machines? Does it cost extra money to use Remote Desktop? My current machine is Windows 10 Pro.

 

[Math Geek]

no cost, its just has to be turned on. it is off by default since it is such a security risk.

some type of online storage would probably be the best option for a slower connection. you'd basically just be starting it remotely and when it finishes, uploading the results back to your storage.

it is easy to use really as it is just like sitting in front of the pc. you see the desktop, can use the pc as if you are sitting there, so nothing new to learn. you just control it from elsewhere. considering you are accessing it from what is essentially a public connection, you def want to use an encrypted connection to your house. i had a tutorial at one point that set up remote desktop and an encrypted connection. i'll see if i can find that link for you to check out. it was easy to follow and worked great using Putty to make the connection and authenticate using your pki key.

not the full pki set-up but this is the basics for turning on and basic security for RDP in windows

How to Enable and Secure Remote Desktop on Windows

While there are many alternatives, Microsoft's Remote Desktop is a perfectly viable option for accessing other computers, but it has to be properly secured.

www.howtogeek.com

it is a lot more involved to use a pki key but this at least turns on encryption and limits who can log in to just a single user you will designate. as you can see it is not hard to do the basics