Connecting Home Network: Accessing Your PC Remotely

In this article, we will discuss how to connect a home network and access a PC remotely. This will enable you to take care of your stuff even when you are traveling, and can't physically be near your computer. We will explore how to build a Ubuntu server on an old laptop and use it to access your PC remotely.

Building a Ubuntu Server

The first step in accessing your PC remotely is to build a Ubuntu server. This can be done by installing Ubuntu on an old laptop and configuring it as a server. Here are the steps:

1. Download the Ubuntu Server ISO image from the official Ubuntu website.

2. Create a bootable USB drive using a tool such as Rufus.

3. Insert the USB drive into the old laptop and boot from it.

4. Follow the on-screen instructions to install Ubuntu Server.

5. After installation, log in and update the server using the following command:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Configuring the Ubuntu Server

After installing Ubuntu Server, the next step is to configure it as a remote access server. Here are the steps:

1. Install the OpenSSH server using the following command:

   sudo apt install openssh-server

2. Edit the SSH configuration file using the following command:

   sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

3. Set the following options:

   • PermitRootLogin no

   • PasswordAuthentication no

   • ChallengeResponseAuthentication no

   • UsePAM no

4. Save and close the file, then restart the SSH server using the following command:

   sudo systemctl restart sshd

5. Generate a new SSH key pair using the following command:

   ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096

6. Copy the new SSH key to the home PC using the following command:

   ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id\_rsa.pub [user]@[home\_pc]

Accessing the Home PC

After configuring the Ubuntu server, you can now access your home PC remotely. Here are the steps:

1. Open a terminal on your local machine and enter the following command:

   ssh [user]@[server\_address]

2. Enter your password when prompted.

3. You are now connected to your home PC.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues, here are some troubleshooting steps:

1. Check the SSH logs for errors using the following command:

   sudo journalctl -u sshd

2. Check the network connection between the local machine and the server.

Summary and References

In this article, we discussed how to connect a home network and access a PC remotely. We explored how to build a Ubuntu server on an old laptop and use it to access your PC remotely.

• Official Ubuntu website

• Rufus