Controling a Mac over the internet for dummies...i need suggestions

[prostuff1]

I have done some (meaning very little...lol) reading and it really is kinda jibberish to me.

I would love to be able to control my macs while i am away from home and be able to control my parents when they need help. I am pretty sure that i have a good enough internet connection on each end (mine is 3360 KBits/Sec and my parents is half that).

So i guess my question is...What is the best way to go about doing this?? Free would be better but not essential. I have a DSL modem and linksys WRT54G wireless router on my end (this has stock firmware and the most up-to-date) and on my parents end is just the DSL modem. Not sure if this info makes a difference but thought i would add it in. All in all, i would like to be able to control each computer from each computer. In other words. i would like to be able to control my iBook and family iMac from my iMac. Also control my iMac and family iMac from iBook. Also control my iBook and my iMac from family iMac.

Any advice and STEP-BY-STEP instructions would be great. OR point me to a place that has good instructions.

Thanks

 

[plinden]

I would love to be able to control ... my parents

Don't we all?

Anyway, try out http://www.hamachi.cc - you install it on all your machines, set up a VPN network so they can all talk to each other, and if you run a VNC server on each of them, you can access them using a VNC client.

Hamachi has a Mac version, but not yet a nice GUI (Windows and Linux do) so to use it you'll need to do some command line hacking using terminal.

That site has a very active Mac forum so they would be able to answer your questions.

 

[prostuff1]

Don't we all?

Anyway, try out http://www.hamachi.cc - you install it on all your machines, set up a VPN network so they can all talk to each other, and if you run a VNC server on each of them, you can access them using a VNC client.

Hamachi has a Mac version, but not yet a nice GUI (Windows and Linux do) so to use it you'll need to do some command line hacking using terminal.

That site has a very active Mac forum so they would be able to answer your questions.

OK, thanks for the point in the right direction. Will do some reading and exploring.

Quick question. Is remote Desktop only for local networks or will that also work over the internet? I have had some experience with remote desktop at my highschool and was wondering if it was local network only thing or also works over the internet.

Thanks

 

[steelfist]

try vnc. i don't know which distribution to recommend though.

 

[plinden]

Quick question. Is remote Desktop only for local networks or will that also work over the internet? I have had some experience with remote desktop at my highschool and was wondering if it was local network only thing or also works over the internet.

Thanks

No it should work over the internet as long as you use something like hamachi which sets up a VPN (virtual private network). All the computers in your VPN will look like they're local. If you don't set up a VPN, you'll have problems with firewalls etc.

However, the reason I didn't mention remote desktop is, you have to pay for it.

VNC servers and clients are free.

So basically, you have a two step process. 1. set up your VPN, 2. get something to allow you to access the other computers.

 

[janey]

you don't even need a VPN (i see no firewall issues)
just VNC will do, and just do a search for VNC on versiontracker

and remote desktop is a fancy word for VNC, which should work on all platforms (i vnc into my linux/windows boxen from my mac).

 

[jsw]

There's a good tip near the top of here (from November 4, 2005).

 

[balamw]

There's a good tip near the top of here (from November 4, 2005).

That is a nice tip since it saves some of the effort required to get the method described in the guide here... http://guides.macrumors.com/Remotely_Controlling_another_Mac

B