7 min readOct 12, 2025

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At 3DS Scan, engineers work with large GPU-heavy rigs to render 3D imagery and experiment with Gaussian Splat models. Remote work is routine, but it comes with two main needs: sometimes they just need to log in and monitor long-running jobs, and other times they must restart or recover a machine.

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The RIG!! Yes, that’s a freakin radiator to keep everything cool!

The Comet Pro Remote KVM from GL.iNet promises 4K video, low-latency control, Wi-Fi 6, and robust hardware to support responsive input and high FPS. Together with 3DS Scan, we tested it over LAN and WiFi, to see whether it delivers on these promises and can support the demands of high-performance remote workflows.

Disclosure

This device was provided to me by GL.iNet for testing. No editorial input or compensation was involved. All opinions are my own.

Specs and Build

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The Comet Pro packs more hardware than most compact KVMs, which is a big reason why it performs so well:

• CPU: Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A53
• Memory/Storage: 1 GB DDR3 / 32 GB eMMC
• Display: 2.2″ touchscreen
• Video: HDMI in/out, 4K @30 fps passthrough
• Wi-Fi: Dual-band Wi-Fi 6, 286 Mbps per band
• Interfaces: USB-A for storage, USB-C for keyboard/mouse emulation, RJ45 Gigabit LAN
• Power: USB-C 5V/2A, PD compatible
• Size/Weight: 93 × 84 × 47 mm / 170 g
• Cables: Basically everything is included for you to setup your rig

The device feels solid and well-built and has a compact footprint. The touchscreen provides a convenient local interface for IP display, network setup, and quick adjustments. Even though the hardware is a lot more powerful than most KVMs, the power draw remains reasonable, between** 3 and 6 watts**.

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Image and Control

For 3DS Scan, the main purpose of a KVM is reliable remote access. The Comet Pro excels here thanks to its hardware. The quad-core CPU and 1 GB of RAM allow high-resolution HDMI capture with compression, delivering smooth 4K 30 fps video over the network, with a bandwidth of about 6 MBit/s. You can also use downscaling to Full HD, maintains image quality while reducing bandwidth to ~300 KB/s.

This combination of powerful hardware, HDMI passthrough, and efficient video compression allows engineers to:

• Low latency, responsive access to OS and BIOS
• Monitor rendering jobs in real-time
• Detect errors or stalls in GPU workloads
• Adjust settings or reboot the machine when necessary

It ensures that 3DS Scan engineers can react quickly without being physically present, which is critical when jobs can run for hours on multiple GPUs.

Touchscreen and Extra Features

The 2.2″ touchscreen is a convenience that shows the device IP, allows network setup, and enables quick local adjustments. Combined with the Comet Pro’s extra features, the touchscreen complements the workflow:

• Virtual Media: you can mount ISO images or files remotely, enabling OS reinstalls or disaster recovery without touching the rig
• Web-based Settings: Configure video compression, input sensitivity, and resolution directly from the UI or touchscreen
• Security: Admin passwords and HTTPS/TLS
• Cloud Service: Gl.iNet portal allows secure remote access without configuring port forwarding

ATX board

The optional ATX board provides remote power control: power on, power off, reset, and LED monitoring. Everything “just worked”. Hardware-level control is essential for 3DS Scan, as sometimes jobs can freeze the entire system, requiring a reboot.

Wi-Fi 6

Wi-Fi delivers the ability to place the device anywhere you want, regardless of cables. This is especially relevant for the prosumer, and not so much the professional, as Wi-Fi is never as reliable as Ethernet, and a professional server setup will always be connected over ethernet.

On a signal level WiFi-6 provides more bandwidth due to the frequency as well as more “room”, as it’s relatively new, and not many devices will be occupying these bands. The protocol with Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is also slightly different from Wi-Fi 4 (802.11), as Wi-Fi 6 bundles traffic and is able to send packets in a more “bursty” manor, reducing channel occupancy.

Although this feature is not a priority for 3DS Scan, we found that the Wi-Fi does work seamlessly. The Wi-Fi can also be adjusted via the Web-UI, making remote changes to the connectivity feasible. We found a notable but very minor and non-problematic increase in latency when compared to ethernet. This is to be expected as we are adding Wi-Fi to the mix.

Network Activity

Cloud Services Enabled:

The traffic in this capture is dominated by DNS-SD (DNS Service Discovery) packets. These packets are specifically for _glinet._tcp.local and _services._dns-sd._udp.local. The most critical part of this traffic is the unencrypted plaintext content within the TXT records. This includes:

• Model name (mn=rm10)
• Device ID (devid=###)
• Firmware version (v=1.6.0)
• Base64 encoded MAC address (mac=###)

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Extract Wireshark: Device ID and MAC address have been obfuscated

Cloud Services Disabled:

In contrast, the DNS-SD packets are completely absent in this capture. The remaining traffic is limited to basic, local-only protocols like mDNS and ARP. While also unencrypted, this traffic primarily resolves hostnames (glkvm local) and IP-to-MAC addresses.

The Issue

The core issue is that the vendor has chosen to facilitate cloud service functionality by broadcasting sensitive device information in plaintext on the local network. This is not a bug, but a deliberate design choice that creates a significant security vulnerability..

By broadcasting its model, firmware version, and MAC address, the KVM makes itself an easy target. Anyone on the same local network can capture this unencrypted data and use it to:

1. Fingerprint the Device: An attacker can identify the exact device model and firmware version13.
2. Find Known Exploits: This information allows the attacker to search for publicly known vulnerabilities (CVEs) specific to that model and firmware.
3. Launch a Targeted Attack: With this knowledge, a highly specific and effective attack can be launched against the device.

This approach compromises local network security for the sake of remote-access convenience.

The Choice

The difference in traffic highlights two competing philosophies:

1. Vendor’s Position (Cloud Services Enabled): This is a usability-first approach. GL.iNet’s design prioritizes a frictionless user experience where remote access “just works” without complex configuration. The trade-off is a transfer of security responsibility. The user trusts that the convenience is worth the risk of openly broadcasting device details to the local network.
2. User’s Position (Cloud Services Disabled): This represents a security-first approach. The user maintains full control over network exposure and remote access by opting out of the vendor’s cloud service. By doing so, the KVM’s local network traffic is minimal and does not broadcast identifying information. This puts the burden of security on the user (e.g., setting up a VPN), but eliminates the local exposure risk.

Note that Tailscale is supported natively on the KVM as well. This means that the KVM can support “zero-trust” topologies as well.

Final Thoughts

For 3DS Scan, the Comet Pro proves that features often seen as “quality of life” are actually critical for a viable remote workflow. Engineers have tried other KVMs, but laggy video, inconsistent input, and limited recovery options made remote work unreliable. The Comet Pro’s additional capabilities make it practical and trustworthy for high-performance GPU rigs:

• Monitor rendering jobs in real-time — high-resolution video with efficient compression ensures engineers can check long-running computations without stuttering or artifacts
• React to errors or stalled computations — low-latency input and responsive controls mean they can intervene immediately when a process hangs
• Recover or reboot machines remotely — virtual media support and ATX power control allow full system recovery without physical access
• Integration — a simple and easy solution is to connect to the KVM remotely via Cloud Services, provided by Gl.iNet. For industrial applications you might already have a VPN-connection that you can use to access the device. Lastly, note that the KVM also supports Tailscale for connecting, which might be a better “zero-trust” approach when a VPN is not already provided.
• WiFi 6 — so this is a feature that I struggle with a little. If you need a reliable setup and are willing to invest money into KVMs, then you probably have a network port available for your KVM too. It might make sense for consumers, in an “it’s better than nothing” scenario, but personally I would always prefer a cable for its reliability.

In short, the Comet Pro turns what would otherwise be a frustrating or unusable remote KVM setup into a reliable, practical tool for 3DS Scan’s workflow. These “extra” features are not just conveniences—they are the elements that make remote management possible. Are you looking for something like this? Then don’t forget to check out the kickstarter campaign.

Special thanks

Special thanks to 3DS Scan for providing a use-case to test the KVM! Their work in 3D scanning and rendering pushes the boundaries of what is possible, including the hardware on which they operate. It provided the ideal environment to test the feature set of the KVM.

Here is a video of one of their renders.

If you are eager to know more about 3DS Scan, what they do, and why they need all this compute, go and check out their website: https://www.3ds-scan.de/