If you have a custom DNS, be sure to block all the relay domains they use and block the respective ports from external access. Even if you disable the settings to avoid relays, they don't acknowledge them and continue to try and phone home somewhere. Just checked the latest version on my phone, which has no relay setting configured, before commenting on this and sure enough, still true. Just logged an entry to rs-ny.rustdesk.com on my DNS, which of course was blocked. Desktop app has an option to disable them if I recall, but it never worked for me.

That out of the way, it is a very good local network software for remote access. Way faster than the alternatives I've tried.

Was using AnyDesk (until it went to shit), then Teamviewer (before they went to shit) and a ton of other VNC and remote desktop options, but did finally land on self-hosting RustDesk.

It's been VERY solid and reliable for me, but what you just brought up concerns me.

I checked my filter log (from Adguard on Windows) to see if Rustdesk is calling home, and I'm not seeing anything after multiple connections and several hours of use. I guess these things aren't a concern with the self-hosted deployment?

I never ran it since i got scared by the shit they done with 'wayland support' which smells like really bad code practices. Patch

But i still somewhat want to use it since it seems much less hassle then teamviewer and anydesk these days.

It has way better performance than TeamViewer and AnyDesk but is also as feature rich and can be self hosted, I love it!

I love it, it works. Running a server is super easy and the speed is quite nice for a free piece of software.

Do you have the same hangup of 7zip being from Russia?

I’ve found using software meant for gaming often works better for this application. My personal choice is moonlight. I run it behind Tailscale so my connections never leave my devices. Even over cellular it’s snappy enough for non gaming tasks, and if I need to check on my dailies in a game or something similar, it handles that much better than any Remote Desktop product. I messed around with rust desk and could never get it quite working and didn’t feel comfortable using the public servers at the time. So I swapped to moonlight and it serves me well.

Games on Whales is a containerized version of moonlight that I struggled to get working as well, but I thinks that’s because I’m a docker beginner.

I wouldn't touch it with a stick. The whole thing is just shady to say the least. Nothing trustworthy whatsoever.

MeshCentral needs to get better. We need it.