Python Method of Monitoring and Controlling Computer by Mobile Phone

1. Preface

Most of the time, we have the need to control computers remotely. For example, if you are downloading something, you need to shut down your computer after downloading it. Or you need to monitor the running status of a program.

Today, we will use Python to realize a small program for remote monitoring and controlling computers.

2. Implementation principle

It sounds very advanced to control computers remotely, but it is actually very simple to implement. The implementation principle is as follows:

Run the program and let the program keep reading the mail Send email to computer by mobile phone Judge whether the mail with the specified subject is read or not, and if so, obtain the mail content Execute the default function according to the message content

It's not so much learning how to control computers remotely as learning how to read emails. Of course, the above process only realizes remote control of the computer, but does not realize the monitoring of the computer. The monitoring operation can be carried out in the form of screenshots.

We can preset a command, and when we read the email content as grab, we will send a screenshot of the computer. How to send computer screenshots to mobile phone mailbox, so as to achieve the monitoring effect.

Please refer to the blog about how to send mail: How to send mail with Python? . I won't go into details here. Let's take a look at how to read mail.

STEP 3 Read mail

imbox module is needed to read mail, and the installation statement is as follows:

pip install imbox

The code to read the message is as follows:

from imbox import Imbox

def read_mail(username, password):
    with Imbox('imap.163.com', username, password, ssl=True) as box:
        all_msg = box.messages(unread=True)
        for uid, message in all_msg:
            #  If it is a remote control mail sent by the mobile phone, 
            if message.subject == 'Remote Control':
                #  Mark as read 
                box.mark_seen(uid)
                return message.body['plain'][0]

First, we use with statement to open the mailbox. Then get all unread messages by the following statement:

all_msg = box.messages(unread=True)

After getting unread messages, traverse the messages. Mark messages with the subject "Reomte Control" as read and return text content.

It should be noted here that because we have screened out emails with the theme of "Remote Control", we need to set the theme to "Remote Control" when sending emails on our mobile phones, so as to avoid the interference of other emails.

4. Screenshot

Screenshots need to use PIL module, which is installed as follows:

pip install pillow

The code for the screenshot is simple:

from PIL import ImageGrab

def grab(sender, to):
    #  Intercept the full screen of the computer 
    surface = ImageGrab.grab()
    #  Save screenshots as surface.jpg
    surface.save('surface.jpg')
    #  Send screenshots to mobile phones 
    send_mail(sender, to, ['surface.jpg'])

The code for send_mail is as follows:

import yagmail

def send_mail(sender, to, contents):
    smtp = yagmail.SMTP(user=sender, host='smtp.163.com')
    smtp.send(to, subject='Remote Control', contents=contents)

For an introduction to sending emails, please refer to the blog mentioned above.

Step 5 Shut down

Shutdown operation is very simple, we can use python to execute command line statements. The code is as follows:

import os

def shutdown():
 #  Shut down 
    os.system('shutdown -s -t 0')

In addition to shutting down, we can also perform many operations. For 1 complex operation, we can prewrite 1 bat files, which will not be demonstrated here.

6. Complete code

Above, we wrote the code of each part, and then we will look at the code of the main part:

def main():
 #  A mailbox used by a computer to send mail that has been read by the computer 
    username = 'sockwz@163.com'
    password = '********'
 
 #  Mailbox on mobile phone 
    receiver = '2930777518@qq.com'
 
 #  Time interval for reading messages 
    time_space = 5
 
 #  Registered account 
    yagmail.register(username, password)
    
    #  Cyclic reading 
    while True:
        #  Read unread messages 
        msg = read_mail(username, password)
        if msg:
         #  Perform different actions according to different contents 
            if msg == 'shutdown':
                shutdown()
            elif msg == 'grab':
                grab(username, receiver)
        time.sleep(time_space)

We can write some other functions according to our own needs. Here's the complete code:

import os
import time
import yagmail
from imbox import Imbox
from PIL import ImageGrab


def send_mail(sender, to, contents):
    smtp = yagmail.SMTP(user=sender, host='smtp.163.com')
    smtp.send(to, subject='Remote Control', contents=contents)


def read_mail(username, password):
    with Imbox('imap.163.com', username, password, ssl=True) as box:
        all_msg = box.messages(unread=True)
        for uid, message in all_msg:
            #  If it is a remote control mail sent by the mobile phone, 
            if message.subject == 'Remote Control':
                #  Mark as read 
                box.mark_seen(uid)
                return message.body['plain'][0]


def shutdown():
    os.system('shutdown -s -t 0')


def grab(sender, to):
    surface = ImageGrab.grab()
    surface.save('surface.jpg')
    send_mail(sender, to, ['surface.jpg'])


def main():
    username = 'sockwz@163.com'
    password = ' Your authorization code '
    receiver = '2930777518@qq.com'
    time_space = 5
    yagmail.register(username, password)
    while True:
        #  Read unread messages 
        msg = read_mail(username, password)
        if msg:
            if msg == 'shutdown':
                shutdown()
            elif msg == 'grab':
                grab(username, receiver)
        time.sleep(time_space)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()