Just to add some more confusion, I really like this: https://www.amazon.com/ZimaBoard-Computer-Personal-Network-Attached/dp/B0BKL7YPBQ?th=1
I don’t really agree that it’s the “worlds first hackable single board computer”, it’s a couple of decades late for that title.
You just could not resist?
Thanks Justin. I should be receiving this unit tomorrow. !6Gig Ram and a 512GB m.2
Cant wait to start playing. Were torn between all the options, but decided on this one.
Wow wow wow!! Thanks @justinschoeman. Loaded her up, installed 16Gig DDR5 4800mhz ram and a 512gig M.2 that was lying around. Windows 10, updated and all my required software loaded…
With fastboot disabled, she starts up under 8 seconds. (I can enter my PIN in under 8 seconds)
Eish. Are you putting together a desktop replacement, or an embedded server??? 
What do you guys use for remote connection to unmanned PC’s?
VNC seems to work fine, any recommendations??
I use ssh as much as possible. If I need access to the graphical side, I will use ssh to create a tunnel (port 5900 typically has VNC), and the run x11vnc on the remote end, and fire up a VNC viewer on the local end.
BTW, you can do this with Venus too, as long as there is no password set. localhost:5900 on Venus has a VNC port, so for example:
ssh -L5000:localhost:5900 root@venus.local # or whatever
And then on the other side you can:
vinagre localhost::5000 # Or replace with whatever VNC viewer you prefer
Of course this probably makes no sense on your local network, but if you’re tunneling through a firewall, it can be a lifesaver 
I generally just enable X11 forwarding in ssh. Then any windows you open are automatically created on your local PC.
Now I might sound stupid, but lets say I want to SSH in to “Workbench” from home, does that mean I should forward ports on the work router?
I never had much success, with that, give up to easily. In this instance we have a third party managing our firewall, switches and internal network, so i don’t have access to those settings/config.
EDIT: Found a write-up, see it works differently than the way I was used to, let me try.
I don’t like opening any connections into my home network. Too much cheap chinese hardware that may compromise the net.
So, instead, I buy the smallest instance on Google Cloud (costs $1.5 per month), and I have the home box ssh into this. Then I ssh into the cloud instance from everywhere else.
Harden the Google Cloud instance, as this is the only one that has any real threat exposure.
After i saw this babe perform, I still cant decide… let me play around a bit… will let you know soon…
No Honestly, she performs real smooth, asked for her Win11 dress coat today and even smoother after that update. Overkill for what I have planned, but no regrets from me… will be a great toy for a long time to come. Old American Ninja movie, or maybe it was “Good morning vietnam” there was a lady on the street trying to convince some American soldier with the following words “Me love you long time”.
Best description om my current feeling for this little box…
If you would just sit down for 5 min when I see you again to explain how I can SSH into another private network, I would truly appreciate it…
To me that feels seriously close to hacking, something I have been accused of so many times without even knowing the correct spelling of the word?
Just to confirm, I can run Home Assistant on this natively, right? (Ie not in a virtual box)
It is a normal PC, just in a small box. So it can run pretty much anything.
If anyone finds these useful, here are some snippets from my ssh configuraion.
On the home automation PC:
/home/justin/.ssh/config:
Host hub hub.example.com
Hostname hub.example.com
User justin
IdentityFile /home/justin/.ssh/hub
Port 8222
RemoteForward 1880 127.0.0.1:1880
RemoteForward 8086 127.0.0.1:8086
This creates an ssh profile ‘hub’, so when you say ‘ssh hub’ it applies all these config options.
IdentityFile is an ssh private key (see ‘man ssh-keygen’) which would be created without a passphrase for automated connections.
‘Port 8222’ makes it connect to a non-standard port on the target hostname (port 22 is heavily scanned and can result in significant network traffic from bots/worms, so it is a good idea to use a non-standard port on internet accessible ssh services - it will still be discovered, but only by port scanners, which are rarer than service scanners). [NOTE2: It is also a really good idea to set up fail2ban on internet accessible servers - just to reduce traffic.]
‘RemoteForward 1880 127.0.0.1:1880’ sets up remote forwarding. When the ssh session is started, it creates a listening port (1880) on the host that you connect to. If anything then connects to this port on that host, then the connection is forwarded over the established ssh connection, and sent to the local address (127.0.0.1 port 1880).
So, with this config, when you connect to port 1880 on hub.example.com, you are actually connecting to port 1880 on the home automation PC.
[NOTE: You can also do something like ‘RemoteForward 8223 127.0.0.1:22’ to make the ssh port directly accessible on port 8223 of hub.example.com .]
/etc/systemd/system/ssh-hub.service:
[Unit]
Description=SSH Tunnel to google hub
After=network.target
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ssh -NT -o ServerAliveInterval=60 -o ExitOnForwardFailure=yes hub
User=justin
Group=justin
# Restart every >2 seconds to avoid StartLimitInterval failure
RestartSec=5
Restart=always
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
This creates a systemd unit ‘ssh-hub’. You can enable this with ‘systemctl enable ssh-hub’ then ‘systemctl start ssh-hub’.
With this installed and enabled, every time the PC starts it will try to fire up ‘/usr/bin/ssh -NT -o ServerAliveInterval=60 -o ExitOnForwardFailure=yes hub’ (ssh to hub). The extra flags will make it die if the connection is lost or the forwards are broken.
Systemd will restart/keep trying this command if it dies/fails, so you end up with a fairly reliable permanent outbound ssh to hub.example.com (with all the port forwards established on that host).
On remote PCs
/home/justin/.ssh/config:
Host hub hub.example.com
Hostname hub.example.com
port 8222
LocalForward 1880 127.0.0.1:1880
LocalForward 8086 127.0.0.1:8086
On every PC I want to connect from (and on my phone, using ConnectBot) I have this ssh configuration.
So when I say ‘ssh hub’, it connects to hub.example.com on port 8222. But now we do ‘LocalForward’ instead.
‘LocalForward 1880 127.0.0.1:1880’ - this creates port 1880 on the local machine, and forwards any connection to this port to the local (127.0.0.1) port 1880 on hub.example.com - which in turn is forwarded to port 1880 on the home automation box.
Now open http://127.0.0.1:1880 to connect to node-red on the home automation PC.
[NOTE: you may need to change port numbers across various hops to avoid conflicts]
I also generally set ‘X11Forwarding yes’ in /etc/ssh/sshd_config on all hosts. Then I can type ‘ssh -X hub’ and any X applications I start will open their windows on my local PC.
The easiest way IME is Wireguard-easy on an oracle (free vpn) and both sides connect to it. Or tailscale is the new method of choice from what I gather.
Works VERY well for me but I don’t have fancy technical needs… And FREE!
Hmm… Tailscale looks really good. Just the usual question of how long the free level will be free.
Of course these are now sold out.
Is there another comparable option in SA?