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Apple Remote Desktop 2.2 Now Available

yellow said:
Ahh.. so with multiple (2) admins we need to spend $1000?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately yes, to adhere to their licensing scheme, for every administrator you install it's another $500 (unless you're using the 10 client limited version, then it's $300).

Obviously WAY too expensive for home use. They need to make an Apple Remote Desktop Express that just includes a couple of features for home users like screen sharing and maybe file copying...
 
Hm.. only new thing I can seem to find is that it works under Tiger. 2.1 didn't on my 2 computers, so this is a welcome update.
 
Okay, I've updated it on several machines, and EVERY SINGLE ONE prompts me for a serial number! In addition to that, my 2.0 serial doesn't work! What the hell? I shouldn't have to buy (or even obtain) a new serial for a point update! Add to that 2.0 installation is hit or miss. Most of the time, I have to keep reinstalling it and hope it'll launch properly.
 
I wish apple would make it less expensive or FREE to use this feature, Windows 2000 and XP let you use RDP for FREE. granted you can't use advanced Terminal server features, and when you RDP into an XP box it loggs off whoever is on it, I think Apple should do something like this.

I hate that I have to use VNC, to connect to my 2 OS X boxes without monitors. I like VNC, but I would REALLY like to use an apple native program. They should make a simple stripped "FREE" version of Apple Remote Desktop.

Just my opinion.
 
this stuff should be free

blackcrayon said:
Unfortunately yes, to adhere to their licensing scheme, for every administrator you install it's another $500 (unless you're using the 10 client limited version, then it's $300).

Obviously WAY too expensive for home use. They need to make an Apple Remote Desktop Express that just includes a couple of features for home users like screen sharing and maybe file copying...
Click to expand...


this should be free or very very cheap, it's free in windows :eek: , you can even get the remote control for windows to be run from a mac for free (although it's not very good)
 
ARD is much more than just a VNC tool like RDC on Windows. It's a remote management tool that allows you to monitor large groups of machines, pull reports on system hardware/software, push files to clients, run scripts, etc.

If you're a lab manager with enough machines and/or machines in remote locations you need and you PAY for software like this, regardless of platform. If you're a casual user that just needs remote connection to your home machine now and then, ARD is overkill. There are plenty of open source VNC clients that fit the bill, so I'm sure Apple doesn't see it as a huge need right now.
 
Where I work at we haven’t upgraded to Tiger yet (probably won’t for while) but for those who wonder what ARD does here is an overview.

The cool stuff
It allows you to remote control users screens; interact by sharing either your screen or someone else’s screen with other users screens (great if your giving a presentation or teaching). You can empty trash bins, restart, shutdown, and wake multiple machines in one step. At a glance you can tell whose machine is on, who is logged in, and what application is active in their Finder.

You drop a CD-ROM in your machine or take something off your drive and push copy it to any number of machines you can manage. You can update their ARD client software, and (most cool!) build software install packages in Package Maker (available on the developers website) and push Apple updates or do fresh installs of any OS X application on multiple machines. You can also do hardware and software detailed reporting, nice for da-boss, they like that stuff.

The stuff that needs work.
Unfortunately ARD is heavily dependant on Multicast and there is no unicast option available in 2.1. I say unfortunately because at least where I work its $100,000 in firmware upgrades on our Foundry core switches to enable this feature talk about retarded licensing! (Believe it or not it’s still less than Cisco’s – even worse) so that’s not happening for a bit. This means you can’t wake machines remotely in other subnets other than your ARD server is in (if you have a plight like mine). To offset some of the pain though you can just not let your Mac’s go to sleep, being UNIX is the engine for OS X this is no big deal UNIX prefers this anyways. From time to time using ARD can cause your Mac to freeze up completely and doesn’t always play nice, but that is an occasional issue.

How it compares to other stuff out there
For $600.00 to get unlimited licenses, very sweet indeed. ARD remote control is a little better than VNC in performance but depending on which VNC distribution you use the difference varies. Microsoft’s Terminal Services or Remote Desktop sharing has the best performance when taking over someone else’s desktop (less latency, faster redraw, and you can set level and type of encryption) but Citrix who is behind their product has done a very good job of making that product work.

If you were to compare ARD with what Microsoft’s solution is it would be a cross between Microsoft’s Remote Desktop and SMS server, SMS adds many more features and is more scalable than ARD but is also much much more expensive on the enterprise too.

Well time to go refill the morning cup-o-joe.
 
Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.

It's actually pretty common to not be able to use WakeOnLan for devices outside of your subnet. Most routers don't pass the "magic packet" between subnets. Hence, the mind-bogglingly expensive price for a router upgrade.

But the rest of the info is really very helpful. Thanks!
 
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