Help: Best way to control OBS at home, via a remote access phone away from home ?

[eddythebamba]

I bought an online workshop but only after buying it realized I will be travelling on that day. I may not be able to get a refund.

So I'm trying to figure out a plan B:

Can I use a remote access app on my phone (android) to control my PC laptop at the hotel, while I am away, and use OBS to record the 4hr class on my laptop?

The laptop will be connected to the hotel's wi fi, while my phone will be using the data plan, I'll be walking the whole day in different areas of a city a few km away from the hotel ( about 1h30m driving distance away from the hotel)

 

[AaronD]

Advanced Scene Switcher

This plugin will allow you to automate various tasks using "Macros". Macros consist of a list of conditions under which a list of actions will be performed. Examples and guides can be found in the wiki. Feel free to contribute! Currently...

obsproject.com

I gave it 5 minutes on either side of 2:00pm and 6:00pm, just in case the timing is slightly off. Of course you can adjust that as you need.

Once you have that, you can leave the laptop and OBS running, all ready to go, and it'll record the window of time that you set it for.

This doesn't account for the possibility of needing to manually start the webinar itself though.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

To get to your laptop would require a remote access setup, with all of the security risks associated with such. There are lots of remote control options, none of the cheaper ones all that reliable, especially for the use case you mention. And even then, presuming you want to remotely check recording still running, the need to send the graphics over remote control has specific implications when combined with application like OBS Studio... so if you pursue this, I'd make sure to test thoroughly in advance.
And typical hotel WiFi not known for being the most stable, reliable either...
Good luck

 

[Kozack]

The solution offered by AaronD seems to be spot on for your particular case.

Now as for being able to see and control what is happening on your laptop remotely, I do exactly this myself.

I use Chrome Remote Desktop running in a Chrome Browser window. The setup is quite versatile.
I can connect to the remote computer from my own computer or from my smart phone.

On the small phone screen it can be a challenge to the eyesight. However you can pinch zoom to magnify and then finger scrool around the target screen so as to clearly see the buttons that you need to control.
A simple double tap on the phone screen will activate or select whatever is currently under the mouse pointer.

I am quite impressed with this free remote solution from Google.
You are allowed to have multiple installations on different devices.
You can also access multiple remote computers, although they need to be in separate browser windows or tabs.

The only import requirement is that you need to have the chrome browser installed on all devices, and all need to sign in with the SAME email account.

Once all is set up on all the devices, it just works like a charm. 95% of the time.

Do not set it up in the mode that requires the end user to send you a pass code to grant you access.

 

[AaronD]

I use Chrome Remote Desktop running in a Chrome Browser window.

A browser plugin can control the entire PC? Seems to me like a massive security hole in the browser itself! No browser plugin should be able to do that!

 

[Kozack]

You are quite correct in your statement about security concerns.

I am not suggesting that this is the best or most secure Remote Desktop Application.
This is just a statement for "eddythebamba" of what I have done too enable my remote desktop connections.
I have been using this setup for about two years now.
Every Sunday from my home, I live stream on YouTube, Video-Audio from our Church for about 90 minutes.

So far I have not observed any security issues. (that I know of)

I think that the browser window is just a conveniant place for "Google Remote Desktop" to present the audio and visual part of the remote connection.

From what I have read about the technical aspects of the Google Remote Desktop application, the underlining communications are all encrypted and supposedly secure, but I'm no computer expert and so I can not ascertain if this is true or not.

 

[DayGeckoArt]

Use Teamviewer to remote in to your home computer. Make sure you are recording the window that has the class playing, because Teamviewer has a popup that appears on top of everything when you disconnect.

Teamviewer is not easy to set up though, for remote access without "approval" on the target computer, you have to make sure everything is set exactly right in several menus, some option s are even hidden.

 

[AaronD]

You are quite correct in your statement about security concerns.

I am not suggesting that this is the best or most secure Remote Desktop Application.
This is just a statement for "eddythebamba" of what I have done too enable my remote desktop connections.
I have been using this setup for about two years now.
Every Sunday from my home, I live stream on YouTube, Video-Audio from our Church for about 90 minutes.

So far I have not observed any security issues. (that I know of)

I think that the browser window is just a conveniant place for "Google Remote Desktop" to present the audio and visual part of the remote connection.

From what I have read about the technical aspects of the Google Remote Desktop application, the underlining communications are all encrypted and supposedly secure, but I'm no computer expert and so I can not ascertain if this is true or not.

If a browser plugin on the local machine controls a remote machine, then that would be okay. All the plugin does then, is network packets to something remote, and normal user interaction that the browser takes responsibility for. That's all fine.

The problem comes when a browser plugin on the remote machine controls the entire remote machine! If the browser supports that *at all*, then someone else could write a plugin to use the same functionality as an attack vector. Perhaps name and brand it something unrelated and somewhat attractive...

A browser should not be able to control the same machine that it runs on, whether by itself or with a plugin.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

A browser should not be able to control the same machine that it runs on, whether by itself or with a plugin.

It doesn't. but when you install the plugin, additional components get installed at OS layer the plugin can talk to.
Atrocious security, with convenience, for those that don't mind getting hacked