Apple Remote Desktop

[rdweaver]

I have a number of friends who have made the switch, who regularly call me asking if I can talk them through various tasks. I would like to be able to remotley access and control their macs like you can with windows remote assistance. Will ARD allow me to do this or is it only for networked machines. If ARD can do this how difficult is it to set up. Remote assistance on windows is very simple to use. I am not a network guru and have only been using a mac for a little over a year so any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. I am aware of the cost of ARD but I don't mind paying for it if it does what I want and is as easy to use as the rest of the Apple software on my machine.

 

[timmillwood]

ARD is very expensive and i have no idea how you would do it but it can be done with VNC

OS X have built in VNC support then you can get a VNC client like Chicken VNC

You need to enable VNC on your friend Mac in sharing settings and set a password.

The firewall and router will need to allow VNC's port

you then type their ip address into chicken vnc and you are connected, it is very slow though.

I have had it working between my phone and my mac before

 

[Macmadant]

try bosco screen share, you can control and view other people's macs and pcs over the internet and its free http://www.componentx.com/ScreenShare/

have fun