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Get Back to Your Mac Without Paying for It
lifehacker.com — Right now I'm working from my laptop in Austin, and I've got the same full access to my home PC in Los Angeles as Back to My Mac offers, but I didn't spend a dime on .Mac to get it. That's because all of the tools you need to roll your own Back to My Mac are already built into Leopard for free out of the box-you just need to know how to access them
mklopez- 1571 diggs
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- 5hocker, on 03/11/2008, -28/+20or use VNC. like everybody else has been doing for 10 years
- Slashriffs, on 03/11/2008, -5/+39RTFA!
It using leopards screen sharing feature AKA VNC. - evilregis, on 03/11/2008, -7/+3VNC is pretty bandwidth intensive. I don't know about availability for Macs but FreeNX is a fantastic remote desktop solution for Linux. Failing that, VNC is certainly a solid solution.
- Slashriffs, on 03/11/2008, -5/+39RTFA!
- Konstantino, on 03/11/2008, -8/+2These suggestions are cool, but unfortunately they would require my computer to be on at all times. I might just have to if I'm planning on accessing my files from somewhere else, though. I seriously can't believe I didn't try the FTP idea sooner (although it does feel a bit unsafe).
- gnuguy84, on 03/11/2008, -1/+10For what it trying to do (a free version of back to my mac) it fills the role pretty well. As far as having you computer on all the time he mentions that you can set up wake on lan so you dont need your computer on at all times and as far as I know thats more than .mac does.
- inkswamp, on 03/12/2008, -0/+7Apple Menu > System Preferences > Energy Saver > Options > "Wake for Ethernet network administrator access."
- hayzeus, on 03/12/2008, -0/+5Use wake-on-lan. You can wake your computer up remotely when you need it. Most modern networking hardware should support this (maybe not all wireless h/w, though).
- Torv, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1> (maybe not all wireless h/w, though).
certainly not Apple's own hardware (extreme/express/macbook pro/macbook sans N)
- Torv, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1> (maybe not all wireless h/w, though).
- fishbert, on 03/11/2008, -13/+3"Finally, to really ease the access to your faux Back to My Mac setup, you should do yourself another huge favor and assign a domain name to your external IP address. Doing so will allow you to access your setup through an easy-to-remember domain of your choosing like backtomymac.selfip.com rather than remembering a series numbers like 76.123.456.789."
Too bad I don't have a static IP address through my cable service.
Too bad DynDNS requires me to update my IP address information every so many days.
Too bad DynDNS will be useless until I update my information if my IP address changes between "every so many days."
The value that Back to my Mac provides (at least how I see it), is that your external IP address can change all it wants and you'll still be able to access your home network (because both machines are pinging back to a 'record-keeping' server).- DarkStalker, on 03/11/2008, -0/+13"Too bad I don't have a static IP address through my cable service.
Too bad DynDNS requires me to update my IP address information every so many days.
Too bad DynDNS will be useless until I update my information if my IP address changes between "every so many days."
Um... none of that even matters. There are very simple tools available to fix all the above.- fishbert, on 03/11/2008, -5/+1Maybe DynDNS has gotten better over the last couple years... when I had tried it, it proved to be more of a pain than it was worth.
- BRODEL, on 03/12/2008, -0/+3With the fact that most all routers now have built in dynamic dns clients built into them, it's hardly a pain. I never even think about it I just type in my URL when I need to access my computer remotely.
- bigsteve, on 03/12/2008, -0/+3I was using DynDNS' freeware update tools 8 years ago...
- fishbert, on 03/11/2008, -5/+1Maybe DynDNS has gotten better over the last couple years... when I had tried it, it proved to be more of a pain than it was worth.
- CheeseburgerBro, on 03/11/2008, -0/+5That's worth $100 a year to you? Wow. Big spender.
The free alternative is to google instructions for writing a simple IP-change notification script. But, hey -- if you've got cash to burn, whom am I to dissuade you?- fishbert, on 03/11/2008, -5/+2... and I didn't even tell you about the gym membership I don't use! =)
Actually, I'm hoping to find a good VPN for Macs before my renewal comes up.
- fishbert, on 03/11/2008, -5/+2... and I didn't even tell you about the gym membership I don't use! =)
- MajorApus, on 03/11/2008, -0/+5For example, every router on the market can automatically update dyndns for you
- fishbert, on 03/11/2008, -2/+3Not true. My Netgear router said it could... but I'd still get the "update before it's too late" messages from DynDNS in my email.
DynDNS themselves ask that you not set your routers to auto-update.
http://www.dyndns.com/support/kb/why_we_recommend_ ...- cawpin, on 03/12/2008, -0/+5The "update before it's too late" messages just mean your IP address hasn't changed for a longer period than they require you to update it. If it doesn't change their system doesn't see it as having been updated.
- fishbert, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1If I still have to go in and update the record, then what's the point of having a router set to update the record?
- fishbert, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1If I still have to go in and update the record, then what's the point of having a router set to update the record?
- cawpin, on 03/12/2008, -0/+5The "update before it's too late" messages just mean your IP address hasn't changed for a longer period than they require you to update it. If it doesn't change their system doesn't see it as having been updated.
- fishbert, on 03/11/2008, -2/+3Not true. My Netgear router said it could... but I'd still get the "update before it's too late" messages from DynDNS in my email.
- Flashman, on 03/12/2008, -0/+3If you don't have a static IP address, write an AppleScript that will determine your IP address and FTP it to a server from which you can check it. Then have your computer run the script every 30 minutes or so.
- rowjimmy, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1there are tons of scripts (for example perl scripts) that will run as a service or cron job, at regular intervals auto-getting your ip address and updating dyndns. i'm sure there are some that run on M$/Mac (i'm assuming that is why you haven't already solved this problem, as if you were a gnu/linux user you wouldn't be asking a question that is answered on dyndns's homepage)
- DarkStalker, on 03/11/2008, -0/+13"Too bad I don't have a static IP address through my cable service.
- fiish, on 03/11/2008, -2/+11Having not read the article let me first say it's hopefully quite useful however there is always logmein.com which is also free and works a treat. All your need on the remote end is a web browser.
- bcamp1973, on 03/12/2008, -3/+1i use logmein.com...it's performance is horrible, when it's not disconnecting you. i use it to do really quick things and usually have to log back in 2 or 3 times to complete a task...not impressed
- misterjangles, on 03/12/2008, -0/+3He should keep using unencrypted VNC and FTP and pretty soon other people will be getting back to his mac for free too!
- signal15, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4Problems with the article.
- He says that ftp file transfers are not encrypted but that they still require a password. This is true, but implies that it's secure. It's not. Username/pass are sent cleartext
- He says you only have to open port 21 for ftp. 20 and 21 are required in most cases unless the remote firewall has some application layer logic to work with non-passive FTP.
- VNC sends credentials in cleartext.
He mentions at the bottom about piping stuff over ssh, or using Hamachi. I would not even consider using this without encryption. Run dsniff on a hotel wireless network and you'll see why.
- tamerrashdan, on 03/11/2008, -5/+26www.logmein.com
- twistymcgee, on 03/12/2008, -1/+2Logmein is the solution I've used. The best thing I can say about it is that "it just works". There is nothing you really need to do to get it running other than install the program on your mac. The only downfall I can see with logmein is you can't transfer files unless you pay for the pro version.
- poseitom, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1but you could mail them to yourself
- tapeworm77, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4LogMeIn is great, but it stopped working for me when I upgraded to 10.5.2... evidently a lot of people are having the same problem (check their message board).
- twistymcgee, on 03/12/2008, -1/+2Logmein is the solution I've used. The best thing I can say about it is that "it just works". There is nothing you really need to do to get it running other than install the program on your mac. The only downfall I can see with logmein is you can't transfer files unless you pay for the pro version.
- Seaseme, on 03/11/2008, -16/+7so.. basically you pay $100 for vnc? hahahaha. too funny. gg
- apologeticus, on 03/11/2008, -5/+24.mac is a lot more than just "vnc."
- Seaseme, on 03/12/2008, -9/+3Sure.
- bigsteve, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2It is.
- willgonz, on 03/11/2008, -13/+3I am not going to open up ports on my router so bots can hammer away to try and crack my VNC and FTP password. $100 a year isn't that much and I make that much an a hour.
- fuse13, on 03/11/2008, -1/+17$100 an hour?
dude, you just wasted at least 83 cents posting that. - guttertrash, on 03/12/2008, -4/+10rofl.
everyones out to get you dude! theres an army of hackers just waiting to expend hours of cpu time breaking into your precious computer.
tard. - mrshickadance9, on 03/12/2008, -0/+10to be honest, people probably really dont care enough about your info to try to hack it. you have to be worth more than $100 an hour to be worth it.
- hayzeus, on 03/12/2008, -0/+5Use ssh port forwarding, or a (free) vpn service like hamachi or wallcooler. Simple and secure.
- bigsteve, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4Dude, come on, he -knows- about those. He makes A HUNDRED DOLLARS AN HOUR.
- hayzeus, on 03/12/2008, -0/+5Yeah, but why waste it? He should save up for the important stuff, like $5000/hr prostitutes.
- bigsteve, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4Dude, come on, he -knows- about those. He makes A HUNDRED DOLLARS AN HOUR.
- Me1000, on 03/12/2008, -1/+3uh...
Back to my mac requires UPnP which is going to do the same thing they are telling you to do in the article! - dacheetah, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1I agree with you entirely.
Opening up ports on your router is a security risk, and it's much better to pay $100 a year in order to use .mac to access you computer, sinch .mac doesn't use normal ports, it uses the less known SSDTP for it's connections. (Sub-Space Data Transport Protocol)
- fuse13, on 03/11/2008, -1/+17$100 an hour?
- yeadude, on 03/11/2008, -3/+20dude logmein.com is the best and free!!! go through any firewall....
- KnightWhoSaysNi, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4The problem with LogMeIn is that it requires the machine to be "awake" at all times. No "wake on lan" here.
- bryanh605, on 03/11/2008, -2/+6Seriously.. Logmein.com is incredible. You can access the mac from a PC or mac. Work Flawlessly. I us eit to ge tto my work pc and home PC and even have it set up to support my parrents and friends PC's. Awesome tool and its free.
- DinosWillDie13, on 03/11/2008, -0/+3awesome. dugg.
wish apple would have been kind enough to share this with their loyal customers though.- BossKey, on 03/12/2008, -0/+3Apple is absolutely doing the right thing by not telling us about this.
Since FTP and VNC logins sent as plain text, I wouldn't use this method away from home unless I was already running a secure tunnel from there. (And I do.) You are basically handing control of your entire computer to any sniffer on that LAN (for example, anyone on the free wireless at coffee shop or school). At least Back to My Mac attempts to implement some kind of security. That's one reason the Apple solution can be better than this...they actually do think about security, even if you do not. This is a great example of that...the security dimension of this "cool trick" is not being accounted for at all by most in this thread, yet it is addressed by the Apple solution.- DinosWillDie13, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1Good to know. Thanks.
- BossKey, on 03/12/2008, -0/+3Apple is absolutely doing the right thing by not telling us about this.
- SOS84, on 03/11/2008, -16/+10Windows has had this feature for free for years. $100. Yikes.
- Orsenfelt, on 03/12/2008, -12/+6Yes, however this is made by Apple, therefor it's better, safer, faster, sleeker and has been around longer. No, I don't want to hear you or your pathetic 'Logic!'.
- digitalpencil, on 03/12/2008, -3/+7Yes and ARD has been around in one form or another for almost 20 years.. Back under your bridge troll.
- BRODEL, on 03/12/2008, -0/+5Umm what feature are you referring to? VNC? RDP? DynDNS clients? Backtomymac is one feature of the .Mac suite. That being said, I don't subscribe to it...
- Me1000, on 03/12/2008, -1/+3first of .mac is more than VNC
2nd off does microsoft's service manage all your IP addresses across all your macs so that you can easily log into it from anywhere?
with .Mac you get all your sync features which have been there for years and if you have leopard they take care of all the back end stuff for the VNC for you. You are paying to not have to deal with it.
VNC is free on all Macs, I use it all the time. But if I didnt understand how to set it up or didnt want to bother with setting it up I could pay my $99 and let apple deal with it!- neodorian, on 03/12/2008, -2/+3He wasn't talking about any Microsoft service. He was talking about what thousands of us have been doing on various OSes for years.
- Me1000, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2he specifically said windows... and he said it was free.
He was clearly trying to make it sound like the only way to VNC into a Mac is to pay Apple $99!
- Me1000, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2he specifically said windows... and he said it was free.
- neodorian, on 03/12/2008, -2/+3He wasn't talking about any Microsoft service. He was talking about what thousands of us have been doing on various OSes for years.
- davidlow, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2This article is misleading. Back To My Mac does a lot more than VNC. The biggest advantage is that you don't need to know the IP address of the target computer, so it doesn't need to be static. Even the workaround in this article, which of course uses VNC, can't do this.
- dacheetah, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2But DynDNS, which the article mentions does.
- davidlow, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1Sorry I didn't notice that in the article (I still can't find that reference). But even so, doesn't DynDNS require that the ISP supports it? When I tried to set it up at my home over a year ago, it didn't work because my ISP wouldn't cooperate.
Also, DynDNS doesn't automatically reconfigure if you change your ISP, such as when you're target computer is also changing locations. I don't know DynDNS that well, so let me know if I've got anything wrong.
- davidlow, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1Sorry I didn't notice that in the article (I still can't find that reference). But even so, doesn't DynDNS require that the ISP supports it? When I tried to set it up at my home over a year ago, it didn't work because my ISP wouldn't cooperate.
- dacheetah, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2But DynDNS, which the article mentions does.
- guttertrash, on 03/11/2008, -2/+14dont bother reading this. its some noob who just discovered vnc, and wants to show off about it.
for those that might actually find it useful, dont use the built in vnc service in osx, its buggy as hell and crashes if you use the wrong client settings. use vine -> http://www.redstonesoftware.com/products/vine/serv ...
also, for those who have a dynamic ip most routers can allow you to specify a username and password for your dyndns provider, i use http://no-ip.org with my dlink 604 router, whos firmware has no-ip as a dyndns provider specifically in a drop down menu. I just put the username and pass in and no-ip does the rest.
one thing that is nice about osx of course is you dont have to ***** around with third party ftp/samba services.
however, i think rdp 6 is going to be very interesting, windows users will be able to run an aplication hosted remotely as if its running locally, i.e with no viewer window...- gn0stik, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4Only on servers, and it will get them an antitrust suit by citrix systems, no doubt. But yes, it'll be cool.
- blackjack75, on 03/17/2008, -0/+1I am the only one to find the built-in VNC client not to crash? It works pretty well, especially when editing the .plist to get the Remote Desktop features enabled (especially the connection quality slider).
- Pyroteq, on 03/12/2008, -11/+5Mac's only just got Remote Desktop?
Wow.- jwdav, on 03/12/2008, -0/+7I guess you'd like to think that - try since about 1987.
Back to my Mac is different than VNC or RDC - the most obvious difference/benefit is encryption of all services and the fact that you don't need to open router ports. It's more like SSH tunneling of a half dozen protocols all at the same time, without having to explain to users how to set up SSH tunneling and how to integrate all the services. Also works with DHCP etc.- toxie86, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1why dig pyro down he is completely right ssh is nothing like having a screen infront of you!
- jwdav, on 03/12/2008, -0/+7I guess you'd like to think that - try since about 1987.
- rufo, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4This is dangerous and insecure. Your passwords for FTP will certainly be sent in the clear, and all your data will be sniffable. I believe Apple's VNC server finally uses a layer of encryption for at least keystrokes and mouse clicks, so that's probably not that bad, but I'd still never leave port 5900 on a private computer swinging in the wind like that. Not to mention - if you have any easily guessable usernames or passwords, it's only a matter of time before you WILL get hacked. Just ask the german warez kings who were using my poorly secured home FTP server to trade movies, or my friend who miscofigured a VNC server and nearly had his identity stolen.
Remote access is great and incredibly useful, but please, for the love of FSM and all that is holy, please make sure you secure your stuff before someone.- Moviespo, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1You have it down to the "T" that's exactly what happens when you leave port 5900 open..
The DYNDS is not bad though... Old way:
http://www.macminicolo.net/videos/ServerVideo2.mov
http://www.macminicolo.net/videos/ServerVideo3.mov
I tend to wait till I get home to use my computers..There is no hurry....
- Moviespo, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1You have it down to the "T" that's exactly what happens when you leave port 5900 open..
- serend, on 03/12/2008, -3/+12Whats with all the logmein.com spam?
- digitalpencil, on 03/12/2008, -2/+9It's not spam, lots of people use it cause it's free and provides the same basic service as ARD/RDC.
- twistymcgee, on 03/12/2008, -1/+5It's not spam it's recommendations. It's another alternative to what the article suggests so it's pertinent to the article. Also, sometimes people post very close to the same time and don't see each other's comments until after the post.
- inkswamp, on 03/12/2008, -0/+10I'm surprised SSH is thrown in as an afterthought especially since it comes installed on all Macs. Even through a router, you're just begging for trouble when you're sending your info unencrypted over the Internet. If you do all this via SSH and port forwarding through a non-default port, you can have a very secure system and can gain access via SFTP so your password and data are not so easily compromised. I do this with my home machine and it works like a charm.
- hayzeus, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1SSH is one of my favorite tools for this. I can tunnel rdp and even SMB so I can do shares through a secure tunnel. Works well, but not really for the technically disinclined.
- inkswamp, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1I'm not sure I agree that it's not for the technically disinclined. You can activate SSH in the sharing control panel with the click of a button. Apple calls it "remote login." Then you just do FTP like normal except using SFTP and you're all set. You don't get a lot of the things talked about in this article (screen sharing and whatnot) but FTP-type access is something most users are familiar wait. I'm not in front of my home computer at the moment so I can't verify my exact set up, but it wasn't so hard that I couldn't walk a casual user through it.
- hayzeus, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1I think you misunderstand -- I wasn't referring to ssh itself; I was referring to setting up a remote desktop (rdp for win32/vnc for mac and others) to tunnel through via ssh. Also, I use it to mount file shares remotely; this is a little tricky under win32 because of the way the smb client works (you can't specifiy a port number in the unc for the remote share).
With ssh running on my router; using ssh tunneling I get most of the features of a vpn without a lot of the hassle. Remote desktop, shared drives, etc. UDP-based stuff doesn't work though.
- hayzeus, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1I think you misunderstand -- I wasn't referring to ssh itself; I was referring to setting up a remote desktop (rdp for win32/vnc for mac and others) to tunnel through via ssh. Also, I use it to mount file shares remotely; this is a little tricky under win32 because of the way the smb client works (you can't specifiy a port number in the unc for the remote share).
- inkswamp, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1I'm not sure I agree that it's not for the technically disinclined. You can activate SSH in the sharing control panel with the click of a button. Apple calls it "remote login." Then you just do FTP like normal except using SFTP and you're all set. You don't get a lot of the things talked about in this article (screen sharing and whatnot) but FTP-type access is something most users are familiar wait. I'm not in front of my home computer at the moment so I can't verify my exact set up, but it wasn't so hard that I couldn't walk a casual user through it.
- hayzeus, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1SSH is one of my favorite tools for this. I can tunnel rdp and even SMB so I can do shares through a secure tunnel. Works well, but not really for the technically disinclined.
- robohoe, on 03/12/2008, -0/+5SSH people?
- blackjack75, on 03/17/2008, -0/+1Espeically since SSH Tunnel Manager makes this pretty easy. Well, I think the UI is a bit confusing for a newcomer but once it's setup it's definitely easier than just typing the terminal commands every time. And it's free.
- battleroyalex, on 03/12/2008, -5/+2dug down for ***** title
- mrshickadance9, on 03/12/2008, -5/+1so.... you ARE paying for it.
- hayzeus, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2There are several ways to do this securely with just about any machine and vnc (and/or rdc under windows) using either ssh port forwarding, or for the less technically inclined, Wallcooler or Hamachi. If you're paying for this kind of thing, you're basically being ripped off. Dugg down for noobishness.
- iloveazngurlzs, on 03/12/2008, -11/+2Why would you buy a Mac in the first place?
- fredmv, on 03/12/2008, -12/+2Buried as "pseudo-intellectual, liberal-arts-major, limp-wristed propaganda". ***** Macs, ***** proprietary software, and ***** "dot mac".
- iloveazngurlzs, on 03/12/2008, -12/+5Mac is a waste of money. You can build a better PC $1000 cheaper than the cost of a Mac
we all know you buy them for the cool factor. But among the tech people, you look like an inexperienced computer user.- OdinEye, on 03/12/2008, -2/+5I'm so happy for you that you have the free time to throw away on building your homemade PC. Some of us prefer to spend our computer time *using* the computer to do other things - like making money.
But you go ahead and have fun with your thing. - twistymcgee, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2I dunno if you've checked the prices of Macs lately but you certainly can't build an equivalent desktop PC for $1000 less than an imac and unless you are going to install Linux, good luck with Vista, I hear it's very nice
- themonkman, on 03/12/2008, -1/+2Inexperienced computer user? Really? I suppose someone wouldn't assume that if they saw all of the Linux apps that I've compiled from source to run on my Mac. Those who know anything about FreeBSD or any *Nix and know that OS X (which is now 100% POSIX compliant) has an extremely powerful shell and foundation that is certainly a lot more powerful than Windows or even it's joke of an extended CLI called Powershell. I work from a Mac because it's the only platform that I can legally run OS X, Linux, and Windows on. As a sysadmin it allows me to support all the people at my company and allows me the most flexibility. Not everyone needs the Mac platform, but to say that those who do all look "inexperienced" is beyond retarded in and of itself. Perhaps if you broke free from Micro$ofts teet, you'd realize that there are far more capable OS'es than just Windows. BTW - I also run LFS (Linux From Scratch). God I must be really inexperienced.
- bluearyus, on 03/12/2008, -0/+0You really were making some good points till the whole 'if you broke free from micro$ofts teet' comment.
I'm not sure if the Parent poster hurt your e-feelings. But wtf are you in high school? Grow up already...
- bluearyus, on 03/12/2008, -0/+0You really were making some good points till the whole 'if you broke free from micro$ofts teet' comment.
- mrthebunny, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2You're funny.
I'm a software developer, I've actually built myself quite a few PCs over the years. And since I used to to do tech support as a student, I consider having a pretty good expertise on Windows.
And you know what? Using Windows all day at work, and then going back to my mac (no pun intended here) at the end of the day just makes me realise how much I don't miss building those grey boxes and raging on driver incompatibilities and random crashes...
But as the other guy said, just go ahead and have fun with your thing...
- OdinEye, on 03/12/2008, -2/+5I'm so happy for you that you have the free time to throw away on building your homemade PC. Some of us prefer to spend our computer time *using* the computer to do other things - like making money.
- stevekeller, on 03/12/2008, -1/+5This is lame... A better solution is to create a VPN endpoint (I use a Linksys wrt54g router running ddwrt). the router updates my dyndns domain with the dynamic IP from my ISP. I then have a secured tunnel back to my house where i can take advantage of wake on lan if my mac mini is asleep. i can also access any of my files/services just like i was at home. or if i wanted i could use the tunnel to filter all of my browsing activity when i use public hot spots.
- gn0stik, on 03/12/2008, -3/+1awesome. was that a point and click solution? How long did it take to setup, and configure completely, and then test (and reconfigure, and test again)? It's not for l33t mac hax0rz like u (ROFL, as if such a creature existed), dude. It's for the average every day no muss, no fuss user. That is after all, their target customer base.
- stevekeller, on 03/12/2008, -1/+2it only took one try, vpn endpoints aren't a tough networking concept.... so you don't think users can follow straightforward step by step article? thats pretty sad, i thought the digg community was a little more tech savy anyways. i never claimed to be a leet mac hacker, vpn endpoints work for linux and windows too, i was only pointing out that there are much better solutions than a vnc connection... so dont be a dick.
- gn0stik, on 03/12/2008, -3/+1awesome. was that a point and click solution? How long did it take to setup, and configure completely, and then test (and reconfigure, and test again)? It's not for l33t mac hax0rz like u (ROFL, as if such a creature existed), dude. It's for the average every day no muss, no fuss user. That is after all, their target customer base.
- ariez84, on 03/12/2008, -9/+3I guess things like this has to be taught to OSX users.
- whalt, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1Yeah, because the average Windows user knows all about things like VNC, SSH, and port forwarding. Uh huh.
- TofuMatt, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4Unless you tunnel this through SSH, it's a huge privacy/security risk. There are, as already pointed out, better solutions than this out there. It's clever I guess, but ultimately a pretty lame solution (compared to VNC, for instance).
- McGrude, on 03/12/2008, -0/+3I set this up with Apples ScreenSharing application, port forwarding port 5900 on my router to my G5 and then used the built-in dyndns.org client in my router to have a consistent hostname. Works like a charm.
- smrekar, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1lifehacker.com just called, they would like to hire you to condense their next article into 2 sentances with the absolute same effect. well done!
- McGrude, on 03/13/2008, -0/+1Well... I didn't elaborate on the process because there were several tutorials online about how to do this already. I didn't think it was necessary.
- davedelong, on 03/12/2008, -0/+5OR...
register a fake iChat screen name (like "fooBarBackToMyMac") and then add that to your buddy list and keep it perpetually signed on on the Mac you want to screen share. Voilá. Instant screen sharing from anywhere in less than 5 minutes.- adairnic, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1if you use leopard everywhere, that would work...
- insomniac8400, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1One would have never guessed considering apple tries to rope you into their stupid service the first time you boot your machine.
- LinuxGalore, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2When I read this I thought WTH, I have been tunneling via ssh between OSX/Windows/Linux for about 7 years now.
PS, if you have Linux with KDE, open konqueror and type fish://192.168...etc and login - gentooian, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2Well forwarding a port through your router for VNC is one thing, but opening up a port for FTP? At least you could enable "Remote Login" and send files via SFTP. That way your username/password/data is not sent in plain text.
Now for the SUPER paranoid, who wants to be typing in all their keystrokes in unencrypted VNC over the internet?
It would be way better to just get a $40 Linksys WRT54GL, slap DD-WRT on it, setup the VPN PPTP server on it, and VPN into your network. - froinlaven, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2Chicken of the VNC: http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/
- peestandingup, on 03/12/2008, -0/+6Uhg, this is news?? OS X has been doing this for YEARS, not just with Leopard.
-If you have an "always on" Mac at home, enable Personal File Sharing in the Sharing Preferences.
-Open up port 548 if you're using a router & port 5900 for VNC controlling (if you need that)
-Make a note of your IP address or if it changes a lot, get a permanent one from dyndns.com & download the automatic updater
-When you're away from your home network, from the Go menu in the Finder "Connect to Server" & type in your IP to mount the remote Mac's drives.
-Use Chicken of the VNC or another free VNC client if you need that option
There you go. I just saved you a bunch of blog garbage.- inkswamp, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1You forgot the part where someone sniffs the network traffic for your password and key and breaks into your computer. Your idea is good but if you do something like that, you should invest some time looking into tunneling all that through SSH or VPN.
- doctordbx, on 03/12/2008, -3/+11995 called, they want their new feature back. In fact, I don't even think it was new in 1995.
Every OS does this out of the box practically, and I personally like the Microsoft Implementation of Remote Desktop and RDP, which I can access from pretty much anywhere... easily. - PipPee, on 03/12/2008, -1/+0chuckles - just love the posts - how many things can we abbreviate?
"It would be way better to just get a $40 Linksys WRT54GL, slap DD-WRT on it, setup the VPN PPTP server on it, and VPN into your network"
And let's not forget OS, OSX, PC, RDP, VNC, KDE, SSH, SFTP, WTH; Brilliant.
DUGG IT cos it's funny. Thanks for the laughs! hee hee. - tbull, on 03/12/2008, -6/+1Hey guys there's a cool site up that you might want to check out, Apple news, tips and more.
http://maxthemac.com
Take care - nedaf7, on 03/12/2008, -0/+2If you want to let your computer sleep and still access it over VNC/SSH/etc., you can use the wakeonlan script available from http://gsd.di.uminho.pt/jpo/software/wakeonlan/. I first configured my router to forward it's port 9 to my Mini. Then, I enabled "Wake for Ethernet network administrator access" under the Options tab of the Energy Saver preference panel. Finally, I created a shell script that calls wakeonlan to my external IP address and my Mini's MAC address, waits 10 seconds (giving it time to wake up), then opens my VNC connection.
The script looks something like:
wakeonlan -i [ipaddress_here] [mac_address_here];echo '3';sleep 1; echo '2';sleep 1; echo '1';sleep 1;open vnc://[external_ip_here] - Misos, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1Honest question:
How many of you plan on doing this now, and did not know it could be done before? - colincornaby, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1Yeah, this doesn't replace Back To My Mac for me because Back To My Mac works no matter what router you're on, and it works with multiple computers. I knew about port forwarding and the whole reason I didn't use it is because I didn't want to bother configuring it for multiple computers, and it wouldn't work if I moved the host computer to a different network.
- whalt, on 03/12/2008, -0/+1"No matter what router your on?" Have you actually used Back To My Mac? At best, even using one of Apple's approved list of routers, it works maybe 50% of the time and for many people not at all. This feature has been a complete joke. I'm an Apple fanboy but this is amateur hour that they can't get this fixed when any number of other networking apps on the Mac can navigate their way through firewalls using a centralized server for handshaking. If Skype can do it why not BTMM? Hell if iChat can do it why can't BTMM?
- happyseamonster, on 03/13/2008, -0/+1Don't do this unless you're a masochist.
- tbull, on 03/13/2008, -2/+1http://maxthemac.com
All the news you need.
Thanks - mhmdkhamis, on 06/07/2008, -0/+01995 called, they want their new feature back. In fact, I don't even think it was new in 1995.
Every OS does this out of the box practically, and I personally like the Microsoft Implementation of Remote Desktop and RDP, which I can access from pretty much anywhere... easily.
http://game.paramegsoft.com/
http://girls.paramegsoft.com/
http://www.paramegsoft.com/ - arielschnieder, on 07/17/2008, -0/+0I am not going to open up ports on my router so bots can hammer away to try and crack my VNC and FTP password. $100 a year isn't that much and I make that much an a hour.
http://www.acnetreatment.blogono.com http://www.iseekblog.com/acnetreatment http://acnetreatment.21publish.com http://acnetreatment.tooum.net http://360.yahoo.com/bestacnetreatmentreviews - wallker, on 10/04/2008, -0/+0Thanx alot ..
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