Mac remote desktop

[Matthew]

Are there any quick and dirty methods to remotely control a Mac desktop (Mac-to-Mac)?

My experience in the PC world has been with logmein. In this case it's a home Mac connecting to another home Mac, both on different networks. It isn't a major deal, mainly wondering how to do it without getting too deep into the network world.

Worst case: I do use logme in and have an account I can work with. For those unfamiliar, one of the ways logmein works is that I can log onto my logmein interweb account, tell it I want a remote connection, and it will generate a PIN that's valid for about 20 minutes. The person at the other end can navigate to logmein, type in that PIN, answer a question or two, and then I have control over their display, keyboard, mouse, and can transfer files.

I don't need that much for what I want to try to do, I just want to view the display and be able to move the mouse around and click on stuff. Both Macs are on different AppleAccounts (or whatever they call it).

 

[tyndall]

Could try "Back to my Mac", both have to be logged in to the same iCloud account though. Or turn on the Mac's built in VNC server in Sharing>Remote Management>Computer Settings, but that would require port forwarding on your router.

 

[Matthew]

Will look into Back to my Mac. I'm new to Macs, so there are a lot of tools I don't know about

 

[AggieMike88]

Logmein is someone I no longer trust/use. At one time, they were decent, but of late, the changes they have implemented have me cancelling my account. They were like Symantec/Norton At one time a leader, now just bloatware that does the job, but as a major resource hog.

For me, Remote Desktop that shops with the Microsoft OS works fine. Takes a bit more to get it working (need to know how to set up the router, VPN, and a few ports), but it does work and ya can't beat the price.

 

[Matthew]

I use logmein rescue. it's a pretty full blown deal that really save travel expenses when I can connect to a piece of equipment at a customer site halfway around the world. I don't use it for day to day email logins or anything like that.

 

[brian]]

I use logmein rescue. it's a pretty full blown deal that really save travel expenses when I can connect to a piece of equipment at a customer site halfway around the world. I don't use it for day to day email logins or anything like that.

We use that product. I think it works on macs and even mobile devices.

 

[denverpilot]

TeamViewer works very well, if you trust them.

Basically anything that can bypass the need for port forwarding means it has to pass through their servers, at which point you have to decide if you trust the organization.

Otherwise for more setup time and effort, there are encrypted ways to go direct to the Mac and share the screen, including SSH tunneling to the built in VNC server. (I wouldn't put the Mac VNC server directly on the Net, but some do.)

 

[deonb]

TeamViewer works very well, if you trust them.

Basically anything that can bypass the need for port forwarding means it has to pass through their servers, at which point you have to decide if you trust the organization.

Teamviewer use UDP pin-holing (not sure if it's STUN/ICE formally, but it's some kind of UDP pinhole). So they only pass the initial handshake through their servers. The actual connection data is sent via a UDP stream.

They'd be bankrupt in a day if they relayed the actual connections via their servers!

I love Teamviewer, but it's not great on the MAC, at least not PC to MAC. It has very regular freezes where you can't use the keyboard/mouse for about a minute. They fixed this for like a month last year until El Capitan released, and then they got broken again. Maybe MAC to MAC works better though.

 

[gkainz]

TeamViewer works very well, if you trust them.

Basically anything that can bypass the need for port forwarding means it has to pass through their servers, at which point you have to decide if you trust the organization.

Otherwise for more setup time and effort, there are encrypted ways to go direct to the Mac and share the screen, including SSH tunneling to the built in VNC server. (I wouldn't put the Mac VNC server directly on the Net, but some do.)

Do you have any insight into your "trust them" comment? I use Teamviewer on occasion and have wondered about their trust factor ... would be curious to hear what you think. Even off line if need be.

Teamviewer use UDP pin-holing (not sure if it's STUN/ICE formally, but it's some kind of UDP pinhole). So they only pass the initial handshake through their servers. The actual connection data is sent via a UDP stream.

They'd be bankrupt in a day if they relayed the actual connections via their servers!

I love Teamviewer, but it's not great on the MAC, at least not PC to MAC. It has very regular freezes where you can't use the keyboard/mouse for about a minute. They fixed this for like a month last year until El Capitan released, and then they got broken again. Maybe MAC to MAC works better though.

I only use it PC to PC, and MAC to PC and have no complaints.

 

[denverpilot]

Do you have any insight into your "trust them" comment? I use Teamviewer on occasion and have wondered about their trust factor ... would be curious to hear what you think. Even off line if need be.


I only use it PC to PC, and MAC to PC and have no complaints.

Well I never analyzed the traffic so I'm still unsure about the UDP pin holing but that helps if true in all scenarios. I know Skype for example tries to do that and falls back to routing through their servers if it can't. I suspect TeamViewer may do the same but I haven't tried to specifically block it.

As far as trust goes, well... That's why I was vague. Any time you pass screen sharing through someone else you have to decide if they would have any reason to look at it.

As for freezes and problems, I haven't had any, but I've also (out of laziness) not upgraded it to version 11 yet across the board. It's been working well enough for doing graphical stuff if needed, but the vast majority of what I do can be done via SSH either direct or over a VPN tunnel and I trust that explicitly.

That's why I also mentioned SSH tunneling to VNC on Mac. That works as well and you only have to expose SSH, which has had a few "scares" over the years too.

 

[Stearman]

I assume you don't mean on a local network? Cuz there's a real easy way to do that...

 

[Matthew]

Nota local network. Two home networks 500 miles apart. I want to walk somebody through something. I can use my Logmein account, but I was wondering if there might be some iWay of doing this.