I’m new to the selfhosted/homelab space and eyeing a used Dell Optiplex Micro system to experiment with. The unit has an i5-8500T and appears to support Intel vPro/AMT for remote management and KVM. This is interesting to me as I may not want to have a monitor and peripherals permanently connected. After substantial searching, most of the documentation and discussions on this topic are aimed at people with a deeper background. I believe I can figure out how to set it up, but I couldn’t find straightforward answers to these security questions:
-I only want to use this for KVM while at my home. It seems like a security risk if this functionality works over the internet rather than just LAN. Is this actually the case, and if so, can it be set to LAN-only?
-Since the machine had a prior owner, is it advisable to reset the BIOS or somehow clear out potential vPro settings from the previous user?
Thanks for any help you can offer!
Disclaimer: I did not yet have access to an AMT setup, but answering based on common sense:
Like most KVM options, it is most likely LAN only. Unless you do some port forwarding on your router, it should not be possible to access it outside of your LAN.
Yes, always factory reset sensitive settings on a second hand machine first.