Remote access: Raspberry Pi Connect comes of age
The Raspberry Pi developers have released the Raspberry Pi Connect remote access software from the beta phase after a year.
(Image: raspberrypi.com)
Almost exactly a year ago, the Raspberry Pi makers launched the remote maintenance software and associated service called "Raspberry Pi Connect". The simple, browser-based software has now officially completed the beta phase and is available as a final release.
The Raspberry Pi developers write in an article that Raspberry Pi Connect has been quite a success and is now installed on more than 100,000 devices worldwide. With the now released version 2.5 of the software, they are releasing the remote maintenance service from beta status.
Optimizations in Raspberry Pi Connect
Version 2.5 includes a number of improvements. Up until this version, devices with the service regularly contacted the Raspberry Pi servers and checked for new connection requests. This can be scaled well on the server side, they explain, but it is impractical for the devices. They have to wake up regularly to make HTTP requests and the data consumption is higher than necessary as a result. From now on, Raspberry Pi Connect clients will keep a single, long-lasting HTTP connection open to one of the Raspberry Pi servers. When the "Connect" button is clicked, the servers send a Broadcast event to the device, which wakes it up and initiates the connection establishment process.
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In addition to negotiating the connection, the Raspberry Pi Connect client sends heartbeat packets to the service's servers. This happens regularly as well as during status changes such as the startup and shutdown of a Raspi device or changes to the internal status – such as the deactivation of screen sharing by users. In this way, the service keeps the dashboard up to date. Historically, the clients now send four heartbeats in quick succession. The developers have helped here and there are significantly fewer packets outside of connection negotiation. In addition, the client now compresses the heartbeat packets, which reduces their size by around half.
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Those interested can update the service quite easily. First you have to update the package management lists using sudo apt update. Then sudo apt install --only-upgrade rpi-connect upgrades the Raspberry Pi Connect client to the latest version.
Raspberry Pi Connect was introduced by the Raspberry Pi developers at the beginning of May 2024. Last week, they also updated the Raspberry Pi OS.
(dmk)
