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I have used Back to My Mac since it was released 12 years ago. It was a technology that was ahead of it's time considering it was for the "normal" Mac user. There was not another major OS that had this technology built in that was super easy for anyone to use.

As for the people that are complaining that it never worked for them, I have nothing to say to that. Maybe it was because I always used Airport routers and all Apple devices but it has never given me problems. I use this feature daily and it will be sorely missed when it's gone.

It was the ultimate tool that allowed me to keep my server upstairs while working on it through my other devices downstairs ... or even when I wasn't even in the house. On top of all that it was free and baked right into the OS! I remember one trip when I was in Europe, had a great internet connection, and worked on my MacPro for hours doing computations that my laptop couldn't.

For all of those people who never used Back to My Mac, I feel sad that you will never know how awesome this feature was. Almost as awesome as the vaporwear that would have allowed iDevices to transfer desktops between computers and keep them synchronized and no I don't mean in a doesn't-work-like-it-should iCloud Drive sort of way.

I know what you mean, however you can VPN in to MacPro when you are outside and then you should be able to access the entire home network. This may be the only free workaround. Good luck to you!
 
Is this the function I use when I go to "Go // Connect to server" and then browse the nextwork for my other Mac? I assumed it was and is the reason I hadn't upgraded to Mojave...

No, that feature will continue to function. Back to Mac allows you to connect to our Mac at home when you outside your network - without any VPN.
 
Never used the function even with my old G5 Power MAC. However I heard it was unreliable all those years ago.
 
I'd love to see a replacement for it that better works with iCloud "Family Sharing" functionality. It always bugged me that I could never remote into our "home" computer because it has my wife's iCloud info on it.
 
Apple RD hasn't been updated in years! I use it for work to manage labs but if I want to remote connect to my home Mac or support my parents or anyone I use Jump Desktop. I've been using it for a number of years https://jumpdesktop.com

I use it on macOS and iOS (both iPhone and iPad)
 
The news article doesn't mention Apple Remote Desktop hasn't been updated in 2 years so it's really a no go app..

Still use it every day though! Hopefully they don't kill it, but I see that coming sooner or later. I think macOS and iOS will be come one over the next few years! They keep crippling macOS to run it into iOS every year!
 
IPv6 is standard technology, just not as human-friendly as IPv4. By no means is it "their" system.

That's not what I said at all. What I said was Apple is using a rather odd IPv6-based system for Back to My Mac.

If you look at it, you'll see that it's taking an IPv6 address from an Apple-controlled block and assigning that to your computer, treating it more or less as a pseudo-private address. When you use BTMM to access your computer remotely, your access routes through that address.

Given that IPv6 has its own facility for secure communication built into the protocol, the approach BTMM uses seems more convoluted than necessary.
 
Still use it every day though! Hopefully they don't kill it, but I see that coming sooner or later. I think macOS and iOS will be come one over the next few years! They keep crippling macOS to run it into iOS every year!
Which is a horrifying trend to see, and apple’s zero respect to power users (not users demanding longer battery life, puns intended;) ). If I tell people iOS has remote assistant software built in, I don’t know how many people will believe. Apple, theoretically, can remotely control your iPhone or iPad if they want.
 
FYI ... TeamViewer is fine if you only need access to 1 or 2 remote systems. However, they will go after you for a business license if they think you are using it for professional reasons (ie: expect to get your account flagged if you use it to provide remote tech support for extended family members.) Once flagged, you'll have to go create another email address and then set everything up again, until you get flagged again, or pay their subscription fee (starts at ~$50 CAD/month/session.)

I much prefer SplashTop. ~$20/year for the ability to connect to 5 remote systems over the internet (outside of your home to, for example, your grandparent's PC). I also use Zoom from time-to-time, which is free for single sharing sessions, even for business use.

There's a ton of other products out there too. The web is littered with them. I did an eval of the 10 most common ones a few months ago, and settled on SplashTop and Zoom in the end.
 
I really don't know if Google sifts through the data when using the service. Knowing their past history, I think they do. Would I trust them, probably not.
Typical FUD. Google "sifts" only through the data that you agree them to sift through. If they did it without your consent there would be a zillion class action lawsuits against them.
 
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Has anyone else still been using ShareTool until recently? The company has been out of business for years, but the software has been working up until a month or two ago. Now it wont accept my login. Does anyone have a recommendation for a new software to match features of Sharetool?
 
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This is why Apple will never succeed in the enterprise. They’ll cut you off at the knees at any time.
 
Apple RD hasn't been updated in years! I use it for work to manage labs but if I want to remote connect to my home Mac or support my parents or anyone I use Jump Desktop. I've been using it for a number of years https://jumpdesktop.com

I use it on macOS and iOS (both iPhone and iPad)

Thanx for the link! Looks pretty neat...

Question: Is the $30 app price per computer shared, or any number of computers shared?

Also... is there anything about Jump Desktop you don't like? And is it reliable (always works)?
 
I disagree, my disabled son lives in a home some 50 miles away and being able to maintain his iMac from my home is my use of it, especially as the homes staff do not have a clue regarding macOS.

As for screen sharing, I cannot get this to work due to the remote network setup over which I have no control.

As for apple remote desktop, they should;

a - update it
b - provide it free to those who need to maintain machines remotely

... at the very least.
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So you trust google?

Just as an option, don’t forget that you can remotely control someone’s computer using iMessage. I used it the other day to help my brother do some Terminal commands. It’s not as full featured as Back to my Mac but it’s something and it is free.
 
I have used Back to My Mac since it was released 12 years ago. It was a technology that was ahead of it's time considering it was for the "normal" Mac user. There was not another major OS that had this technology built in that was super easy for anyone to use.

As for the people that are complaining that it never worked for them, I have nothing to say to that. Maybe it was because I always used Airport routers and all Apple devices but it has never given me problems. I use this feature daily and it will be sorely missed when it's gone.

It was the ultimate tool that allowed me to keep my server upstairs while working on it through my other devices downstairs ... or even when I wasn't even in the house. On top of all that it was free and baked right into the OS! I remember one trip when I was in Europe, had a great internet connection, and worked on my MacPro for hours doing computations that my laptop couldn't.

For all of those people who never used Back to My Mac, I feel sad that you will never know how awesome this feature was. Almost as awesome as the vaporwear that would have allowed iDevices to transfer desktops between computers and keep them synchronized and no I don't mean in a doesn't-work-like-it-should iCloud Drive sort of way.

I don't think local screen sharing is going anywhere, I'm sure you'll still be able to do that. This sounds like specifically Back To My Mac is going away, which is only for the "out of the house" moments.
 
Don't forget all of the other awesome included features like all of Google's keyloggers, metadata stripping, and monitoring built right in!

Like Apple is not doing similar with the data it collects. Or so the lawsuits say, we will see the depth of the similarities soon.
 
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I’ve used this many times to help my dad with support things on his MacBook but it hasn’t worked well at all for quite some time. Also used it previously to access files from a Mac when traveling but the cloud has solved that issue. Sad to see it is going away all in all since my dad needs help rom time to time ...
 
The worst thing about this for me is the issues it has created with accessing the hard drive I have plugged into my AirPort Extreme. I used to be able to access it on WAN, now only LAN. Very disappointing.
 
If your comfortable setting up SSH, SSHFS could meet your needs.
Looks promising and easy enough to install with homebrew. I'll definitely be giving this a try when I'm remote again Monday. Seems like it would be pretty easy to add into "Alfred" for quick access too. VPN on my router has the advantage of the Mac appearing in the Finder sidebar like BTMM, but the VPN handling can be tedious.
 
Of course there are other screen sharing solutions. And, yes, I could use iCloud for files that I know in advance I will need to access remotely. But I have external disk enclosures with terabytes of data and sometimes I need to access various random pieces of data from those -- when I'm 8,000 miles away. Also, most things I still keep locally. It's not that I don't trust iCloud. It's sort of like leaving your wallet in your car in the garage. Probably safe, but I prefer to have it in the house.

For me, the value in BTMM was the WAN device discovery and dynamic DNS services it provided with no extra work or added expense. I don't have a fixed IP and mine really does change intraday.

I think there are other solutions out there, however, involving a 3rd party proxy server with connections solicited from the local (@home) device.

BTMM worked well for me, albeit slow when I had no control over the router in my remote location (e.g., if connecting via cellular while on the road). But inevitably everything would eventually get stuck during a long session, and absolutely NOTHING would get me going again (other than flying home to do a reboot). And THAT is what sucked about BTMM.
 
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