KDE connect only sees devices on the same local network. For security that is good.
However, in some settings, a connection to a different (local) network would be nice, e.g., when one device with sensitive data is in the home or work zone, but should connect to an insecure device (spying smart tv, for example) on the guest network.
Would that compromize security/privacy?
Would a setting “Also connect to devices on <network>” be feasible?
Hi - I’m no expert on the topic, but for what it’s worth - the discussion on this feature request in the KDE Bugtracking System might be relevant to the discussion here: 471994 – Support hidden services from TOR (.onion) or I2P to allow connections between devices in different networks
KDE Connect relies on local network connectivity to discover neighbors, and the only way that can really work between networks is to use a middleman service that you can connect to all the time, but then do you want to run all that sensitive personal information and access between systems through an external resource? I wouldn’t.
Now the alternative is to use a secure VPN or VPN-like overlay between your devices such as Zerotier or Tailscale, which I’ve used a lot, just never with KDE Connect in mind, but I just tested Zerotier that I use and it works fine from phone on cell data zerotier connected to my desktop. They will not see each other automagically since it probably uses some sort of multicast/broadcast discovery to see each other on wifi/lan (those don’t work on tunnels like this), but I setup the Zerotier LAN IP manually and it connected right up.
This could be OpenVPN or anything, but Zerotier and Tailscale are secure, simple, and free for personal use so long as you secure your account and devices.
Tailscale might work better for this usecase. It is also end-to-end connnection and should be safer than having it open to internet directly
Thank you both. A good project for the next free weekend or so. 