NVRA

NVRA provides free NVDA remote relay servers around the world, so everyone can have low-latency remote access. We currently have 17 locations available.

What's the point of this thing? How do I use it?

When you control another computer using NVDA Remote, you'll often connect to a relay server. The most common one is NVDARemote.com. when you do this, you're sending your key presses to that server, which forwards them on to the controlled machine. The controlled machine sends back speech, which goes through the relay server once again before being forwarded back to you.

When one or both machines are far away from the relay server, it takes longer for the key presses and speech data to get from one machine to the other. Using a screen-reader is a very unpleasant process when latency is high, since we often need to press several keys in quick succession and listen to the responses. This latency is also present on mainstream remote access solutions and on the internet in general, but screen-reader usage is a more interactive process than looking at a screen. A sighted person can glance at a screen, process the information, and move the mouse to the button they need. A screen-reader user may need to navigate through many controls before reaching that button, and will need immediate feedback for all of them. NVRA aims to solve this problem by supplying relay servers in many common locations around the world, making it easy for NVDA Remote users to find a nearby location that provides low latency.

To use any of these servers, simply enter the domain (such as tx.nvra.io) in the host field of the connect dialog.

Server Locations

US and Canada

Other

Data Privacy

All NVRA servers are unmodified copies of the official NVDA Remote server linked below. The server does not log remote keys, speech, or keyboard commands. However, all data between remote machines is processed by the relay server with no end-to-end encryption. If you do not trust the host of a relay server, do not connect to it. There are many ways to host your own relay server cheaply, and if you are technically-minded, you are encouraged to explore this option.

NVRA Shell Script

Due to the hassle of configuring the NVDA remote server in all the locations, I've written a shell script that should work on Debian-based Linux distributions. It will install required dependencies, download the files required to run the server, generate self-signed certificates, and install the server as a systemd service. You can examine the script at this link, or download and run it directly in a terminal with the following command:

curl https://get.nvra.io | bash

Note: This script comes with absolutely no warranty. In short, if you run it and something breaks, i'm not obligated to un-break it. However, please feel free to get in touch if you have any problems running it or have code suggestions to improve the script. It's very basic at the moment and could probably be expanded and improved.

Get In Touch

Please use the contact page on TTHub.org for any feedback or questions.

If these servers are not working well for you and you have a suggestion for a new location, I'd love to hear from you. This project runs off the TTHub infrastructure, so more remote servers also means more TeamTalk locations.