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.Mac "Back to My Mac" not working

mrlunch

mrlunch

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 30, 2006
28
0
San Diego, CA
Has anyone got "Back to My Mac" working outside of their network? I have a AirPort Extreme (location: home) and third-party Netgear WGT624 SUPER-G WIRELESS ROUTER router that support NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-PMP) or Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) but still can't get "Back to My Mac" working.

Has anyone got this working?
 
I've been trying to get it to work from my university's network, but I haven't been successful. I've tried to change some of the settings on my base station at home, but to no avail. If anyone has it working, I'd love to hear what it takes as well.
-Chasen
 
Back to My Mac without .Mac

As many of you know, when you have two or more macs on the same network, you will see them in the finder window. No big deal but, here is how you can get "back to my mac" on the cheap without .Mac(This is assuming you have only one other mac at home with remote desktop turned on. I haven't tried this with more than one mac on the same network). Start a screen sharing session with any mac, then, when you see the "screen sharing" icon in the dock, right click to say "keep in dock". Thats it. Now, the next time you open it from your dock, it will ask you for the host name or IP. Enter you home IP or any other IP you wish to connect to, authenticate the user and there you go. Full access and control of that mac.
 
mrlunch-

I was able to get disk sharing to work from an Apple Store back to my Mac on my home network. I have not been able t get screen sharing to work except within my home network.
 
mrlunch said:
Has anyone got "Back to My Mac" working outside of their network? I have a AirPort Extreme (location: home) and third-party Netgear WGT624 SUPER-G WIRELESS ROUTER router that support NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-PMP) or Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) but still can't get "Back to My Mac" working.

Has anyone got this working?
Click to expand...

It works fine for me! My G4 iMac, which is on an AEBS, is the target machine, accessed from my SR MBP when I'm at another location about 100 miles distant. At the remote location, the MBP is accessing trough a Netgear wireless router.
 
Mine is working fine now too. Macbook connecting to second macbook @ home. And screen sharing works too when on the go. It took me a lot of trying before I finally got it to work. After lots of configurations mine worked once I set up my roaming computer first to .mac account and syncing then added the @ home mac to .mac and synced it. Finally that got them to see connect when outside of my home network. I have the AEBS non-gigabit.
 
Any tips?

For those who have gotten it working, what did you do?

I expect to turn on "back to my mac" on both computers, they talk to the .mac central server, and It Just Works (tm). I am using an Apple Air Port with 2 Leopard computers upgraded to 10.5.2, and while it works on the home network, I have not seen it working remotely.

Please post your tips. Thanks!
 
I expect that either apple will take it out at least for now with mobile me since they never mentioned it at the keynote, or it will finally work like a charm. I have high hopes for mobile me (except for the name :p)
 
jkixonia said:
For those who have gotten it working, what did you do?

I expect to turn on "back to my mac" on both computers, they talk to the .mac central server, and It Just Works (tm). I am using an Apple Air Port with 2 Leopard computers upgraded to 10.5.2, and while it works on the home network, I have not seen it working remotely.

Please post your tips. Thanks!
Click to expand...

What your probably seeing at home is the 'shared' environment. Which is why it looks like Back to my Mac. It's probably not Back to my Mac your seeing but computers on your network that you can "Share Screen" with.

Some things you have to ensure are there:

On your user account, make sure YOUR account has a valid .mac username and is connected.
Make sure your .Mac preferences are setup with your .mac account properly. If 'macuser@mac.com' doesn't work, try using 'macuser' and then the password.
Make sure 'back to my mac' is enabled. If it gives you any prompt your .Mac is probably not connected.
Try messing with the firewall preferences as well.
Once all that is ensured, try relogging just in case and on the other machine that wasn't modified, try restarting finder.

I walked my Dad through it and he got frustrated and we have it working in Florida on my Mom's MB and I'm in Georgia. Soon as she logs in I see her MB pop up in my Finder. She's got a netgear router and I have a linksys.
 
jkixonia said:
For those who have gotten it working, what did you do?

I expect to turn on "back to my mac" on both computers, they talk to the .mac central server, and It Just Works (tm). I am using an Apple Air Port with 2 Leopard computers upgraded to 10.5.2, and while it works on the home network, I have not seen it working remotely.

Please post your tips. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I tried everything I & the geniuses & creatives at the Apple Store could think of & still Back to My Mac wouldn't work. The problem may be your modem and/or ISP.

I had Qwest DSL with their default ISP. The Actiontec modem is also a router & I opened ports, enabled NAT, finally put it into transparent bridging & let my Airport Extreme n do all the network stuff & still no luck. My only option would be to see if I could find a Mac-friendly ISP & hope that would work. I gave up & went back to Comcast internet Monday & Back to My Mac works just as it should now.
 
PeggyD said:
I tried everything I & the geniuses & creatives at the Apple Store could think of & still Back to My Mac wouldn't work. The problem may be your modem and/or ISP.

I had Qwest DSL with their default ISP. The Actiontec modem is also a router & I opened ports, enabled NAT, finally put it into transparent bridging & let my Airport Extreme n do all the network stuff & still no luck. My only option would be to see if I could find a Mac-friendly ISP & hope that would work. I gave up & went back to Comcast internet Monday & Back to My Mac works just as it should now.
Click to expand...

That just reminded me of something I had to do with my parents netgear. There was a NAT setting and a firewall setting inside the netgear I had to change.

Can't remember the changes but it IS another thing to look at. I believe I found the answer in Applediscussions.

I have heard people with Qwest having Back to my Mac issues as well.
 
I became interested in this Mac feature after reading the story about someone catching a person that stoled their Mac and taking a photo of them with Photobooth.

Mine worked perfectly and now it doesn't work. I don't know what I did. When it worked, it worked better than expected. Now it won't even show up as a shared item.

I made sure my home Mac doesn't go to sleep and I rebooted it and tested it out with another Mac in my home and it worked fine. My next step is to take my work Powerbook home to test it within the same wireless network.
 
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