Need remote access advice..

[zen.state]

Hello all,

I have been a Mac user for almost 2 decades but until now I have never needed to remote into a Mac not on my local network.

I first looked into gotomypc.com but found you need at least OS 10.5 or higher on both ends. The Mac I need to remote into is my Aunts on the other side of Canada and she is running 10.4.11 Tiger.

The most common free solution I have found is Chicken of the VNC but it has not been updated since 2006. The main thing I need advice on is what is the best client and what to tell her to do at her end.

I am doing research myself but would greatly appreciate any advice or personal experience people have to offer. A free solution that isn't too hard as till this is setup on my Aunt's G4 tower I have to walk her through everything via phone.

 

[GGJstudios]

I prefer using TeamViewer, which works with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Ubuntu, iPhone, iPad, etc. It's very secure and quite simple to set up and use.

 

[ReggaeFire]

Assuming it's a low level user you're trying to connect to and you just need basic screen sharing, I would go with logmein.com Free, easy, reliable, works with 10.4.

 

[GGJstudios]

Assuming it's a low level user you're trying to connect to and you just need basic screen sharing, I would go with logmein.com Free, easy, reliable, works with 10.4.

... except LogMeIn Free doesn't offer desktop sharing, file transfers, screen blanking and a few other features that Teamviewer provides.

 

[davids8477]

Hello all,

I have been a Mac user for almost 2 decades but until now I have never needed to remote into a Mac not on my local network.

I first looked into gotomypc.com but found you need at least OS 10.5 or higher on both ends. The Mac I need to remote into is my Aunts on the other side of Canada and she is running 10.4.11 Tiger.

The most common free solution I have found is Chicken of the VNC but it has not been updated since 2006. The main thing I need advice on is what is the best client and what to tell her to do at her end.

I am doing research myself but would greatly appreciate any advice or personal experience people have to offer. A free solution that isn't too hard as till this is setup on my Aunt's G4 tower I have to walk her through everything via phone.

Not free but good value is the Apple Remote Desktop - good price right now on the App store.

I use it to support my Dad's IMAC in the UK.

The only additional thing you might need is a free subscription to DYNDNS which can monitor your Aunt's IP address - assuming she does not have a fixed one.

 

[zen.state]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I will look into all of it as I love having options.

I just got off the phone will apple tech support and was told that with 10.5+ you can use built in screen sharing to access Mac with 10.4+. This is the same idea as what I have used on my local network with a 10.5 system remote accessing a 10.4 system. He said I just need her ip and for her to set up a remote access account on her mac.

From what he said it works the same over the net other than a drop in performance. My Aunt and I are going to attempt this later this week when we both have more time.

Thanks again everyone and please keep sharing ideas/options.

 

[zen.state]

I am happy to report that the info the Apple tech gave me (above post) worked perfectly. 10.4+ supports remote desktop and 10.5+ has a built in VNC client called "Screen Sharing".

If you are doing 10.4 to 10.4 though then you would need a third party client like Chicken of the VNC which is free.

So the moral of the story is that with 10.4+ you can easily do remote computing for free.