RemoteConnect

I started building my own remote desktop application about a week ago, mainly as a way to explore real-time communication, WebRTC, and cross-platform desktop development.

The frontend/client is built with C#/.NET and Avalonia, while the backend is built with Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, and WebSockets.

For the actual remote connection, I'm using WebRTC for peer-to-peer communication, with STUN/TURN for establishing connections across different networks.

So far, the project includes:

- Real-time screen sharing

- Remote mouse and keyboard control

- WebRTC data channels for control messages

- STUN/TURN connectivity

- Device identity and connection requests

- Session lifecycle management

- Dynamic screen-sharing bitrate and FPS

I'm currently working on system audio and microphone streaming, followed by clipboard synchronization.

It's still an early prototype.

For now, RemoteConnect supports direct WebRTC connections only. If a direct P2P connection fails because of NAT, firewall, or network restrictions, there is currently no TURN relay fallback.

In the future, adding 1–2 TURN servers would improve connectivity by providing a relay when a direct connection isn't possible. However, because RemoteConnect continuously transfers real-time traffic such as screen frames, audio, and control data, TURN would also introduce ongoing server, bandwidth, and infrastructure costs.

This also made me understand why remote desktop services like AnyDesk can be expensive to operate. It's not just the application itself—the infrastructure needed to maintain reliable connections and relay traffic at scale can become a significant ongoing cost.

This diagram shows how the two computers establish a WebRTC connection.

WebRTC tries to find the best available path between the two computers, preferably direct, and uses TURN as a fallback.

WebRTC can use:

• Direct connection — the two computers communicate directly, so the server does not carry the actual screen/data traffic.

• TURN relay connection — if a direct connection is not possible, the traffic goes through a TURN server.

• STUN — helps the computers discover their public network addresses so WebRTC can try to establish a direct connection.