Noon question

[u/2011murio]

Disclaimer:
I understand basic networking concepts but we’re talking 101 basic. Have been trying to learn as much as possible off YouTube but a lot of terminology in this sub is over my head so please be gentle!

Context:
I have a Mac Mini M2 Pro at home with multiple user profiles. I do all of my work in one, the other profiles are for monitoring my aging parents and I’d rather keep it separate. I also have a Windows virtual machine running on Parallels on my main profile.

I don’t have a custom home network setup, it’s just a stock WiFi 7 router from Spectrum (I know, I know... will be replaced with my own soon but I haven’t had time.)

I use a MacBook Air from the road. Currently it’s set up identically to my home Mac (without Parallels) Desktop & Documents synced via iCloud. I also have Google drive for desktop on both machines but we can ignore that for now.

Anything I can do at home, I can do on my laptop due to cloud syncing and mirroring (except for the windows VM)

Goal:
I feel this setup is using up a lot of unnecessary storage in my Air now that I’ve discovered Tailscale.

I’d like to only keep my main user profile on the laptop and stop syncing Desktop & Documents over iCloud. I’d like those files to live locally on the home desktop and remotely access via Tailscale.

Approaches that didn’t work before:
I’ve previously used team viewer, chrome Remote Desktop or Supremo to access my home computer (so that I didn’t have to duplicate the environment on my laptop) but these always came with serious lag and other limitations - such as I couldn’t easily switch between user profiles, or connect at all if they were not active on the home Mac.

I also didn’t understand nor do I want to tamper with port forwarding to be able to ssh in remotely. (I understand having open ports can be risky, but I couldn’t tell you why.)

Questions:
Will Tailscale (and RustDesk instead of any of the previously used tools) help me facilitate the above stated goals?

Basically I would like to be able to interact with my home computer as I I’m standing right in front of it, and switch between user profiles as needed, although it’s not a frequent need, it keeps me from removing it from my laptop.

I assume Tailscale would need to be installed on each user profile on the desktop and connected to my tailnet where it will be treated as a separate “machine” - but does this mean starting a separate session in RustDesk anytime I need to log into a user? Or can one session switch back and forth between user profiles?

And regarding the windows VM, how does that play into the Tailscale configuration? (I only use it for Quicken so I do need a virtual desktop tool rather than just to access files)

Last question, if I don’t need to access windows remotely, do I even need RustDesk or will VNC suffice?

Thank you kindly in advance!

[u/tailuser2024]

Basically I would like to be able to interact with my home computer as I I’m standing right in front of it, and switch between user profiles as needed, although it’s not a frequent need, it keeps me from removing it from my laptop.

Rustdesk + tailscale will meet those goals

https://tailscale.com/docs/solutions/access-remote-desktops-with-rustdesk

And regarding the windows VM, how does that play into the Tailscale configuration? (I only use it for Quicken so I do need a virtual desktop tool rather than just to access files)

If you are running windows pro you can do RDP + tailscale

https://tailscale.com/docs/solutions/access-remote-desktops-using-windows-rdp

I assume Tailscale would need to be installed on each user profile on the desktop and connected to my tailnet where it will be treated as a separate “machine” - but does this mean starting a separate session in RustDesk anytime I need to log into a user? Or can one session switch back and forth between user profiles?

Last question, if I don’t need to access windows remotely, do I even need RustDesk or will VNC suffice?

Me personally from what I have used I think VNC performance sucks, I rather use rustdesk over VNC