Remote viewer that works without wifi?

[patricem]

I recently downloaded Ninjadesktop for remote viewing. I found out you have to leave your iMac on at all times..no sleep mode. I decided I'd try Splashtop and downloaded it last night. I see that also needs your Mac not to go into sleep mode. Now I am at work where here is no wifi, so I use my Verizon cellular, and at this location I can only get 3G. I left my Mac at home to not go into sleep mode.
Question: Is it safe to never go into sleep mode? Do all the remote viewers require this?
Neither Splash nor Ninja will work here now, using 3G ! Will any remote viewers work using cellular connect? I'm so worried now with my IMac not going into sleep mode for 12 hours.

Thanks!

 

[wadjj]

I recently downloaded Ninjadesktop for remote viewing. I found out you have to leave your iMac on at all times..no sleep mode. I decided I'd try Splashtop and downloaded it last night. I see that also needs your Mac not to go into sleep mode. Now I am at work where here is no wifi, so I use my Verizon cellular, and at this location I can only get 3G. I left my Mac at home to not go into sleep mode.
Question: Is it safe to never go into sleep mode? Do all the remote viewers require this?
Neither Splash nor Ninja will work here now, using 3G ! Will any remote viewers work using cellular connect? I'm so worried now with my IMac not going into sleep mode for 12 hours.

Thanks!

First question seems a bit weird, in sleep mode the cpu, gpu and hard drive are off, what do you expect the computer to do without them?

Yes it's safe, although normal PCs are no servers and not designed to run 24-7 for a long time, but considering that we now upgrade our computer every 3-4 years, little noticeable harm could be done.

There are some apps that work with cellular network, for example logmein pro. I doubt that it'd be usable with just 3G, but yes it's possible and technologically it's not hard per se, only making it usable would be a little tricky I reckon.

 

[patricem]

My cousin is able to get into my mothers computer (windows), whether it's in sleep mode or not. He uses some version of logmein. So I just didn't know about Mac. Sounds like without wifi tho I'm out of luck. Thanks for answering.

 

[astrorider]

If my reading of this is correct, with Splashtop you need to have your iMac plugged into your router with an ethernet cable in order for "wake for network access" to work:
http://support-remote.splashtop.com...-it-is-in-sleep-or-hibernate-mode-wake-on-lan

 

[patricem]

Thank you for this info, I have to read more. My iMac is connected to Ethernet at home w router. I will check those settings when I get home, hopefully nothing happened to the computer being on 12-13 hours straight! Appreciate this information.

 

[wadjj]

My cousin is able to get into my mothers computer (windows), whether it's in sleep mode or not. He uses some version of logmein. So I just didn't know about Mac. Sounds like without wifi tho I'm out of luck. Thanks for answering.

That's technically impossible.

However, it is possible to wake up a computer by remotely sending a packet (which is a built-in feature in some sophisticated remote control software, not sure about logmein since I haven't really used that myself), even if it's power off(not with plug out, of course, because the network adapter has to be standby). I should have brought that up.

That network wake-up functionality is built in almost every network adapter since like ten years or more ago, but sometimes it's default off in the BIOS so it's possible that you have to do some pre-setting. Your cousin must be quite tech-savvy to know how to do that.

 

[astrorider]

Thank you for this info, I have to read more. My iMac is connected to Ethernet at home w router. I will check those settings when I get home, hopefully nothing happened to the computer being on 12-13 hours straight! Appreciate this information.

I've had my Mini on for the past 6 months without sleep, and the previous Mini ran for 2+ years never sleeping. The default in the Energy Saver System Preference app is for the hard drive to spin down with inactivity, and you can make sure your display is set to turn off after some preset number of minutes too (that's probably also the default). I'm sure you have nothing to worry about.