pfSense+ being flagged by TeamViewer as Commercial Usage???
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@lhoust said in pfSense+ being flagged by TeamViewer as Commercial Usage???:
consider pfSense+ as an indicator of "Possible" Commercial Usage
And how would it do that?? Teamviewer flagging whatever you doing as commercial has zero to do with what your using to nat and route traffic on and off your network..
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@johnpoz My thought process on involves: Home Assistant's ability to Detect which Router I am using [OpenWRT or pfSense+ (which is detected as FreeBSD)]...
TeamViewer may require some Knowledge of the Router behind which the TeamViewer ID is located, so as to provide Remote Access from the Internet???
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@lhoust said in pfSense+ being flagged by TeamViewer as Commercial Usage???:
so as to provide Remote Access from the Internet???
No - not how it works at all.. Your 2 devices phone home to teamviewer and make the connection that way.. How would knowing what router your using help them in anyway.. You think knowing what router your using would allow them to circumvent your firewall rules or something to allow for unsolicited inbound traffic?
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SG-4860 24.03 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.03 -
@lhoust This has been happening to TeamViewer users for years. It's not your router/firewalls fault. It's not really your fault either. It's just they want people to pay, hence all the popups and reminders whenever you log off. It use to happen with my ISP provided router and the Asus router I use to have. They probably drive more people away (hopefully).
You will notice you can't find any specific criteria on their site. For them your occasional connecting every weekend could be considered commercial use (remote working in their eyes). Disconnecting and reconnecting in quick succession could cause the flag, if their system takes a while to actually "disconnect" you before you try to log in again, thinking you have multiple active connections when you really don't. It's all up to them.
Its partially why you see lots of users in the home lab space recommend almost anything else but TeamViewer.
There are workarounds out there but I'd recommend finding another remote viewing suite.
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@johnpoz Although I knew both devices "Phone Home" to TeamViewer, I also understood where possible, the two devices will attempt to Direct Communication (otherwise they have to communicate through TeamViewer, as an "Intermediary")...
If Direct Communication between the two devices is possible, the Firewall's Properties might determine whether or not Direct Communication will be "Possible"??? I also understood TeamViewer is quite good at providing Remote Sessions, without any explicit Firewall Configuration...
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@cappie said in pfSense+ being flagged by TeamViewer as Commercial Usage???:
There are workarounds out there but I'd recommend finding another remote viewing suite.
Concur - I use to be a big fan of teamviewer back in the day.. But there are many other options these days..
If you have graduated to using pfsense - why not just run a vpn on pfsense. Openvpn, Tailscale, Wireguard, ipsec - vpn into your network and then do whatever you want using say even just say windows remote desktop or any of the opensource linux ways to get access to a linux desktop.
You mention wol, once you are vpn'd into your network - you could send wol from pfsense web gui, etc. To wake up any of your devices on your network.
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
SG-4860 24.03 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.03 -
@lhoust said in pfSense+ being flagged by TeamViewer as Commercial Usage???:
Direct Communication (otherwise they have to communicate through TeamViewer, as an "Intermediary")...
They can - this is is possible without knowing anything about your router, and just a standard hole punch technology.. And there are again no need for any port forwards or UPnP etc..
Again what router you have or don't has has zero to do with with teamviewer saying your using their product in a commercial manner.
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@johnpoz I have just re-configured my "Evaluation" pfSense+ PC as a Local Router, with plans for Testing of WireGuard/Tailscale...
I run a PLEX Server 24/7 on an Ubuntu Box, which works well for TeamViewer WOL Requirements. Recently I Added enabled a WOL Function on my Home Assistant (Raspberry Pi 3B), although that has yet to be tested "Remotely"...
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@LHoust - Consider setting up a VPN on pfSense or set up a free ZeroTier account and install the ZeroTier client on your two computers. With either of these options, you can then use Remote Desktop to connect from one computer to the other.
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@seankane I had not heard of ZeroTier, I will give that try!
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@seankane Over the weekend I had success with ZeroTier and creating a Remote Session using NoMachine with my Desktop Computer (Windows 10).
NOTE: Remote Desktop requires Windows Pro or Better and this Desktop Computer is running Windows 10 Home...
From my short time with NoMachine over a ZeroTier Point to Point VPN, the Session is NOT as "Fast" TeamViewer, although NoMachine strives to reproduce the Remote Desktop more "Exactly" then TeamViewer (which takes some short cuts, in favor of "Faster" Remote Session Speed)...
Thanks for the suggestion!!!
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Gotta pay for those F1 and Premiere League sponsorships somehow.
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@lhoust I was just testing access to my main pc from my chrome book for an upcoming trip I have planned.. I validated openvpn working (both tcp and udp), tailscale working, and installed chrome remote desktop as 3rd method just in case..
Normally not a fan of chromes remote desktop thing - but since going to be gone for 2 weeks want to make sure will have remote access as long as my home internet is up..
My main pc is win 10 pro so rdp works for me..
There are always multiple ways to skin the cat, relying on something like teamviewer that could lock you out at any time because they "think" your using their product in a commercial manner wouldn't be the only method I would have setup if what you need is to make sure you can get to your system while your out and about.
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@lhoust - Happy to help. Sounds like you're making some progress and have several options!
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@lhoust said in pfSense+ being flagged by TeamViewer as Commercial Usage???:
to TeamViewer IDs suddenly being marked as having been classified as having been used for Commercial Usage (when there was NO Issue for the Months prior to last weekend)!
Had that happen to my personal account years ago... I mostly stopped using it even for helping my family. Less of a problem since most of my friends I do some IT help for are Mac users but TeamViewer is one of those "works in a pinch" but shouldn't be heavily relied upon as it is a 3rd party program that requires using their servers on the back end -- which costs them money, so how can it remain free? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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@lhoust - pretty cool. I had not heard of NoMachine. I'll investigate.
On a sort-of related note, I am a big user of DWService.net and love it. It's free, but there are paid tiers. If you use that, you don't need a VPN nor ZeroTier.
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Have any other pfSense+ Users been flagged for Commercial TeamViewer Usage, even though they were NOT paying themselves to access their own Computers (on an Occasional Basis)???
Nope. Use it for my mothers machine and we are both behind a pfsense instance.
