To be honest, Panzer saves me time looking for software that peeks my interest. Whether Panzer uses this software is of much lesser concern to me.
On the other hand, I do see the point of mentioning only software that is actually used by the person recommending it. That would be where the 'useful'' in the title of the thread comes into play.
As it stands though, I do appreciate Panzer's efforts.
Regarding Twingate:
Sounds to me they dress up the creation of TCP tunnels (and their reverse tunnels). And those are even easier to setup with
AnyDesk. Twingate seems to act as the mitigation party between creating a connection between computers in different networks. Twingate has a nice story, Anydesk barely explains about their tunneling capabilities. If you need such things, you are already aware about the concept and/or tools. AnyDesk doesn't spin a story about it and seems to be trustworthy enough. Twingate I don't know.
Also, I have been using the TCP tunneling features from AnyDesk for 3 months now and I'm pleasantly surprised. AnyDesk comes as both freeware/commercially licensed and I have been using their free version. At times it isn't as stable as one would like, but when you pay for the software, I believe you are using their properly monitored servers instead of their free, first come, first serve servers.
You'll need to install Anydesk on your own system and the one you wish to control. Each system will get a specific Anydesk address, but you can create a more meaningful alias on either computer if you so desire. once that is done, you create a (password protected) connection between the computers. Anydesk will enable you to actually log into the remote computer using RDP if the remote computer is a Windows machine. For TCP tunneling that is not necessary. Only the connection between the computers has to be up.
In the main menu there is a menu option with a lightning logo. There you'll find the tunneling feature. Simply fill in the name/service (including port number) you wish to access in the 'Tunnel' section, then use the name "localhost" and the same unique port number in the 'Reverse tunnel' section. Hit the save button and you are done. You can create as much tunnels as you like, but every tunnel must use an unique port number. I have been using these tunnels to access web services I run in the remote location with my local browser, mail with my local client and database management (PostgreSQL and Oracle) was not problem at all.
The above may sound like a lot of steps, but if you did it once, you'll see how simple it is. AnyDesk is available for all major operating systems, including Android and iOS.
Perhaps I paint a too simple picture regarding Twingate and their setup, but as alternative AnyDesk has worked out great so far already, even on their free plan, so personally I'm not that inclined to look much further. In case you deem the AnyDesk solution to lack in security, you can use a tool like
Apache Guacamole to limit access to remote (Windows/Linux/Mac) machines by simply using a HTML5 compliant browser. Guacamole can use its own user access functionality, but can also be coupled with the LDAP/RADIUS/2FA solution you have running in the remote network. Apache Guacamole is free and open source (but Linux only). However, You can create a Linux VM yourself and install it there or even get a test VM (.ova) from
Bitnami.
Adding Guacamole does complicate things and isn't necessary for connections between computers in home networks. Company networks are a different story.
