remote desktops? how?

[unc32]

I was looking for a way to connect to another computer (parents, friends) and use it via remote desktop...mainly so I can fix it. I know this is easy in windows Xp and I know there is the program from apple. However, I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars for such a setup. Is there any cheap way of doing such a thing in 10.3?

 

[edesignuk]

VNC works quite well, with clients and servers for most platforms (inc. OS X of course).
Do a

for it.

 

[MacBoyX]

Edit...somoene beat me to this while I was typing my reply LOL...

VNC.

It works by having one person (the target machine) running an VNC Server and by you using a VNC client.

I use it all the time. You may have to adjust a firewall to allow port 5601 traffic but it works great.

They can either run the server all the time or just when tehy need help (makes it a bit more secure for them).

It's not the fastest, it takes a few moments for screens to refresh but it's free.

There are lots of clients and servers out there. The ones I use are on my homepage...

http://www.macboyx.com/macstuff/vnc.shtml

hope that helps.

macboyX

 

[stcanard]

Originally posted by MacBoyX
I use it all the time. You may have to adjust a firewall to allow port 5601 traffic but it works great.

Don't adjust the firewall for VNC!

Start the ssh daemon on your Mac (remote login in internet sharing), then if necessary adjust the firewall to let port 22 through.

Wherever you are log into the mac with the command:

ssh -L 5900:127.0.0.1:5900 me@mymac

Then on the vnc client, connect to localhost.

This will tunnel your vnc connection through ssh and provide two huge benefits:

1) ssh is probably the most secure port you can open. It has been audited numerous times and is very unlikely to have a major hole. I have no idea about the security of VNC

2) All your passwords will be encrypted when sent across the VNC connection.

If you really want to get fancy, the server's permanently net connected and both sides are Macs, there's a really neat trick you can use with xinetd, ssh, and nc to create a deamon that transparently connects with an encrypted connection so you don't even know it's being done. That's how I handle the smtp server on my hosting provider so I'm not sending plaintext over wireless networks.

 

[Squire]

I'm in the same boat. Sometimes my folks need help doing elementary tasks with their iMac and I'm on the other side of the world.

So, how does this work? I've downloaded OSXvnc 1.32. Next, I have to get my folks to download the same program and then take it from there?

I'm new to this so excuse the idiocy.

Squire