Connect to a Raspberry Pi Remotely

1. Enable SSH

On the Raspberry Pi, open a terminal and run:

sudo raspi-config
# Interface Options → SSH → Enable

Or enable SSH headless by adding an empty file named ssh to the boot partition of your SD card.

2. Find the Pi's IP address

hostname -I

3. Connect from another machine

ssh pi@192.168.1.42

4. (Optional) Enable VNC for a desktop

sudo raspi-config
# Interface Options → VNC → Enable

Then connect with the RealVNC Viewer using the Pi's IP address.

• Connection refused: SSH isn't enabled. Re-run raspi-config.
• Host not found: use the IP address directly instead of raspberrypi.local.
• Permission denied: wrong username or password — default is pi on older images, or the user you set in Imager.
• Slow VNC: drop the colour depth and resolution in raspi-config.

• Use SSH keys, not passwords.
• Disable password auth in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.
• Change the default user.
• Keep the OS patched: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade.
• Avoid exposing SSH directly to the internet — use a VPN or zero-trust tunnel.

Manually SSHing into one or two Raspberry Pis is fine. Managing dozens — or thousands — of devices in the field is a different problem.

You'll need:

• Centralised device management and monitoring.
• Secure, zero-trust remote access by default.
• Reliable, repeatable provisioning of hardware and OS.
• OTA updates with rollback.

That's the work we do every day at Scaler Pi.