Remote Computing

Tagged with cinnamon, linux, raspberry pi on December 17, 2024

I’m heading to the United States in March 2025. The original plan was to leave my Raspberry Pi 400 (“Pi” for short) running in the master bedroom, headless, and connect to it from the United States for remote computing. Well, plans change.

Too Many Variables

Using the Pi in the manner I had planned for was doable. I had already tested it with Remmina (which brings up the desktop), SSH, rsync, and more. Using the Nemo file manager’s “Connect to Server” option, I could even manipulate the file system as if it was native to my desktop computer.

There have been times when the router had to be reset, and times when the Pi had to be rebooted. There’s only one nephew living in our compound who I can trust to reset things for me. The problem is that he’s a full-time college student, and he isn’t always around. Also, he isn’t as technically inclined as I am, so anything that requires more effort would probably be impossible to explain.

A Better Option for Remote Computing

Some websites in the United States block connections from the Philippines. I obviously can’t name them all, but some are United States government websites. For that very reason, I’ve been using a VPN since February 2023. I’m currently using NordVPN, but I don’t even use all of what I’m paying for. I intend to switch to Surfshark when my subscription to NordVPN expires, for two reasons.

Surfshark is less expensive, less than half the cost of NordVPN. Surfshark has a complete GUI for Linux. Although only the GNOME, KDE, and Xfce desktop environments are officially supported, I may still be able to get it to work with Cinnamon. If not, I can use the Xfce version of Linux Mint in a virtual machine.

Some websites in the Philippines block connections from anywhere that isn’t in the Philippines. I don’t know why, but I don’t want to take any chances. There are times when I need to connect to the United States Embassy in Manila, as well as the Bureau of Immigration.

Peace of Mind

Although using a VPN is more expensive than connecting to my existing Internet connection in the Philippines, which I share with two other families, I don’t have to worry about the equipment. The water, electrical, and Internet services remain connected when I’m away, but I spend less than $100 USD a month for all of them when my house is unoccupied.

I’ve disconnected when leaving once, and reconnected when returning once. It was a pain each time. It’s much easier just to leave everything connected until I decide to leave the Philippines permanently. That won’t probably won’t take place before 2028.

Image by Raspberry Pi