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Control another mac online

cpnotebook80

cpnotebook80

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 4, 2007
1,241
566
Toronto
My sister at university has an imac and so do i at home.She has some issues with installation and wondering if there is a feature in leopard that would allow me to access her mac desktop remotely and test/install her program.
i heard of the apple remote desktop but not tried it and looking for alternatives within leopard first.
any advice
thanks
 
cpnotebook80 said:
My sister at university has an imac and so do i at home.She has some issues with installation and wondering if there is a feature in leopard that would allow me to access her mac desktop remotely and test/install her program.
i heard of the apple remote desktop but not tried it and looking for alternatives within leopard first.
any advice
thanks
Click to expand...

i know you're looking for something in leopard, but i'm not sure how to set it up. there is a free alternative called teamviewer. it makes it really easy. both of you need to download teamviewer and you can connect directly to her comp and help her out.
 
back to my mac if she has mobile me.

screen sharing if she does not. screen sharing is a VNC and you might have to walk her through forwarding ports on her router
edit: this is built into leopard and is under system preferences > sharing
 
logmein.com

free, easy.

HOWEVER, the computer must be ready and running to access it through the web. If you are trying to help someone with an install of the OS, you wont be able to use Logmein, because it hasnt even had a chance to load yet.
 
mlemonds said:
back to my mac if she has mobile me.

screen sharing if she does not. screen sharing is a VNC and you might have to walk her through forwarding ports on her router
edit: this is built into leopard and is under system preferences > sharing
Click to expand...

To piggy back on this post, as mentioned above, if she or you do not have MobileMe (one of you needs to have it) you can download TightVNC for the "viewer" part of the software.

She would then on her machine setup her machine to allow you to connect (not including ports this is one screen in the sys pref pane and it's one radio button and a password) and you'll need her IP address. Not the 192 one but an external one.

Chances are though this might be a pain since you have to think about ports for router/firewall, port forwarding if behind a router, etc.

IMO if at least one of you has MobileMe you two can easily remote/screen share easy. I do this with my wife's MB, and my moms MB (in Florida and I'm in Georgia) when my mom has issues, I just head to my iMac open Finder and see her MB and click screen share and I can trouble shoot her issue remotely.
 
bankshot said:
Just use iChat. Start a chat with her, and then go to Buddies -> Ask to Share <name>'s Screen. Works great for remote tech support.
Click to expand...

DUH!!!! totally forgot about that. LOL and it's free. Even if you don't have a MobileMe account, you can use an AOL login (those are free to get) and it will still work. Beauty of it is, NO EXTRA SOFTWARE to install.


Good show bankshot!

Remember to turn on (under sharing in sys prefs) screen sharing.
 
Thanks guys,will try all the options out. My sister isnt exactly mac savvy. I have mobile me so it helps
and trying to get her into ichat away from MSN?! lol yea right.
anyways,, lets see when i get home
 
cpnotebook80 said:
Thanks guys,will try all the options out. My sister isnt exactly mac savvy. I have mobile me so it helps
and trying to get her into ichat away from MSN?! lol yea right.
anyways,, lets see when i get home
Click to expand...

Look at it this way and tell her this, you 2 can use iChat just for troubleshooting purposes. We're not saying to use it as a perm change. But if the need arises you can use iChat for those "Let me show you how" type of things where you just have to take control of the screen.

I don't use iChat all the time, but when my parents live in Florida and my wife, kids and I live in Georgia, and my dad calls up (my parents use Yahoo) I tell him fliip on iChat and let me see what you mean, that's the only time they use it.

So we're not saying to convert her, but just for tech support type things where you have to take control, just flip it on, and she can still have her MSN on at the same time. Heck you can create the AOL account yourself and give her the info like "SisAOL" with a password of "stopbeingapaininmysideandlearnhowtouseyourmac" HAHAHAHA j/k.
 
You can also use gMail accounts for iChat, and it works pretty well, I've tried it myself. The beauty of it all is that you don't have to worry about ports or enabling stuff, nothing, you just start it.
 
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