I’ve gotten my brother-in-law really excited about home automation and recently configured a Bond Bridge to control his ceiling fans, installed some smart lights, and introduced him to Home Assistant to run automations, of course. I know he will need help and I am glad to assist him! However, he lives 3 hours away in the mountains, so popping over real quick to help integrate something new or debug an automation is kind of a hassle.
What are some good temporary remote Home Assistant support options?
Simplicity is key. I was thinking of something like a Raspberry Pi running [insert cool stuff here] that he can power on, wait three minutes, allows me to VPN in, fix up stuff, and then he can power it off to maintain privacy.
What do you use for helping out other people remotely set up and configure Home Assistant automations and integrations like this?
@BebeMischa Nabu Casa did come to mind for the Home Assistant part of it, but I don’t think I could get to the rest of network with it.
@WallyR I’ve used TeamViewer for my own personal usage (remote login to my computer downstairs from upstairs), but TeamViewer is now complaining that it appears I’m using TeamViewer for “support” and must now purchase the product to continue using it (even though I’m only connecting to my own one local machine).
@aceindy Opening the router seems too risky for my taste. The VPN solution seems more secure, especially if there is some kind of “VPN on a stick” that he can physically turn on and off when needed that would allow me to connect into. Are there tutorials for this kind of point-to-point “service on a stick” VPN solution?
If your two local machines are windows based, then look into remote desktop, which is a native windows feature.
For connecting to your brother-in-law where both are running Windows, then AeroAdmin might be an alternative to TeamViewer.
There are some limitations on the free version, like max. 17 hours per months. The rest of the limitations should not apply if it is just you and your brother-in-law. https://www.aeroadmin.com/en/index.html
I’ve done this for my mom using a VPN on her network. That time I forwarded a port on her router to PiVPN. Tunneling is the way to go for remote access to sensitive data. Now I instead run WireGuard (modern OpenVPN alternative) on the Pi.
I am not sure a Pi Zero will be good.
Encryption is a heavy math operations thingy and the Pi Zero might be overwhelmed a bit, but you have the gear already, so make a test.
Some routers have VPN servers built-in, so maybe check for that too.
Unplugging the Pi when remoting is not needed adds even more security, as then the forwarded port becomes a so called black hole. Although just pulling the power off the Pi every time feels rough. What about a GPIO button that graciously shuts it down and an LED that indicates when safe to disconnect?
Ya, he doesn’t quite have a full tinfoil hat, but more of a tinfoil yamaka, so having a physical break between him and the device that allows the outside world into his home would be more reassuring; no wireless, no power when not in use. I’ll see if the PiZero can handle it. If not, I might have to hope for the “Raspberry Pi 4 at retail price” lottery to smile upon me.
