Had it with teamviewer - how to make them unnecessary

Hi there

seems to me that teamviewer are getting more aggro in what they consider "private" usage -- so I decided to give the 2 fingered "Churchill Salute" and say why do I need you guys any more.

The main problem with remote computer communication is to get your public IP address which dynamically can change -- so a nice little way would be to email yourself every so often what your remote / home computer's current IP address is --note your IP address assigned by ISP not the laptop or computer you are using tom access the remote PC.

So here's a little test script to do just that -- this is a really simple one where you input your email servers address your email address and the recipients address . This method can also be used to send logs / alerts or whatever.

At this stage I'm testing on a server that doesn't need authentication (port 25) -- will add the authentication in a further example later .

I decided to use netcat rather than telnet because telnet needs a few sleep commands in it to handle responses from the server.

I left the start variables as interactive so its easier for testing on different servers and sending to different email addresses.

This also works from the WSL on Windows -- install dnsutils to get the dig command on it.

I'm sure windows gurus out there can easily convert this simple script to Windows -- please post if you can.

Run say hourly or whatever via crontab in linux / or in windows any job scheduler -- afraid I don't know windows that well on scheduling jobs though.

#!/bin/bash
# Send email from bash
# hrafn simple script to send simple email with your IP address (external)

read -p "Enter SMTP email server address: " server
read -p "Enter SMTP Port: " port
read -p "Enter Your Email Address: " from
read -p "Enter Recipient's Email Address: " to
# get your public IP address
myip="$(dig +short myip.opendns.com @ReSolver1.opendns.com)"
# create message
function mail_input {
echo "ehlo $(hostname -f)"
echo "MAIL FROM: <$from>"
echo "RCPT TO: <$to>"
echo "DATA"
echo "From: <$from>"
echo "To: <$to>"
echo "Subject: Testing SMTP Mail"
echo " "
echo "Your public internet address is "
echo $myip
echo " "
echo "finished"
echo "."
echo "quit"
}

mail_input | netcat $server $port || err_exit


Don't forget to finish the inline text with the "." line before the SMTP quit command.

Using this method doesn't require the use of an email server or client on the host (you will need to read the email of course to see the content !!)

This should also render those programs like dyndns etc unnecessary too.

After you have the ip address it's simple to communicate / logon to the remote computer -- use RDP / Putty or whatever.

I can make instructions on that later. You will need to have the (remote -- i.e your HOME) computer on a fixed LOCAL IP address (LAN) so you can port forward correctly for RDP etc.

I'll update this also for how to attach files and the commands for the base64 encryption when using AUTH with SMTP.

have a happy Xmas / new year etc everybody

Cheers
jimbo

z3r010 said:

Jimbo, If Teamviewer is being a pain, Cloudberry remote assistant is worth a look and completely free - Free Remote Assistance Software | MSP360™ (CloudBerry)

Teamviewer blocked me earlier this year from using it to sort my family PC's out, it took a couple of weeks to get unblocked.

Hi there

Thanks for the suggestion -- however this is quite fun to do and it's much easier when logging on to Home computer to not have to worry about bandwidth, can use VPN's or whatever without problems etc, no worries either with tor / media streaming etc.

Also when in a decent hotel can watch my multimedia / SKY footie on Sat afternoons etc etc by accessing my own machine.

I'll have a look at your suggestion of course.

Cheers
jimbo