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29 December 2007
Since later releases of Mac OS X Tiger, Apple has made remote controlling of Macs easy by incorporating Screen Sharing in some form...be it Apple Remote Desktop in Tiger or Remote Management in Leopard. Both are pretty much the same and are based on open source tools, but work slightly differently.
This article guides you through the process and shows how to use other approaches for what is generally referred to as VNC (Virtual Network Computing), whilst pointing out the slight differences that you might experience between Mac OS X Tiger (Mac OS 10.4) and Leopard (10.5).
Firstly you need to turn on Remote Management so open System Preferences and click on Sharing...
You will now see this screen...
Notice the highlighted text? It reads Remote Management. In Tiger this will read Apple Remote Desktop. Click the tick beside it to get the options (you may need to click the padlock at the bottom left and authenticate to allow changes)...
The options I've highlighted are reasonably general, just tick the ones that you feel best suits your needs and click 'OK'.
You'll notice that 'Remote Management' is now 'On' and displayed with a green dot and below it, the IP address of your machine. Note this address because you'll need it to connect to it.
Now the fun part, connecting. You can do this a number of ways...the first I will briefly describe as I have no contacts in iChat. If you do use iChat and you want to see first hand how iChat works then please feel free to contact my .Mac username of This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . I'm online most nights except Tuesdays and Thursdays. Anyway to use iChat simply fire it up. Now at the bottom of iChat you'll see five icons but four of them are grouped. The one you want to use is this one...
This is labelled Start Screen Sharing. It's kind of cool this because using a chat client allows you to also explain what you're doing while you're doing it. I seriously can see this being of major benefit. I've played with it over the wireless LAN at work using Bonjour and it is awesome. It even allows you to play video over the connection which is more than what Window's Remote Control allows.
The second way to access the machine is via the Finder. You've probably used this method to connect to servers using SMB or NFS, but we're going to use this in a slightly different way. From the menu choose 'Go' then 'Connect to Server'....
Now here's where you need the IP Address shown on System Preferences. Type into the 'Server Address' field "VNC://<IP Address>" (where "<IP Address>" is the IP Address given to you by System Preferences, then click 'Connect'.
NOTE: Make sure the IP Address is the machine you want to connect to not yours. Thankfully Apple has seen fit to stop sharing your own machine with yourself which will cause an endless loop. If you try to access your own machine you will be greeted with this message...
This method is actually accessing the same client as iChat uses, only it cuts out the chat client method. Personally I kind of like the iChat method but it won't work on anything other than iChat-to-iChat sessions, so the Finder method may be the only option without extra software.
Accessing your Mac in other ways
Remote Desktop isn't actually VNC software, so it may be
difficult for non-Macs to connect to your machine. This can be fixed with some
3rd party software, mainly Vine. Vine is a VNC server that is very simple to use, in fact it's as
simple as running the app.
You'll notice that there are three IP Addresses. If you are letting someone access your machine from outside you will need to give them your External address. I've blotted mine out so you don't know it. Don't hand your External address out to anyone you don't want to have access to your Mac!
From here you simply need to fire up a VNC viewer. Vine comes with a viewer but it requires a license (which is odd) as the server doesn't. Chicken of the VNC is a widely known and respected viewer, and is free. So we'll use CotVNC to connect.
Fire it up and you'll get this screen...
Select the server you wish to connect to or add one using the “+” icon at the bottom left of the screen. You may connect with a password if one has been set or just click 'Connect'.
Note, CotVNC will allow you to connect to the machine you are working from. Don't do this for the same reason I mentioned with the Leopard section. You'll see.
Once connected you can do anything that the connection will allow. Some will only allow viewing whereas other settings will allow you full control.
Personally I like Leopard's method. Screen sharing from iChat is awesome from a helpdesk perspective as it offers handsfree communication but it is pretty much limited to Apple tools as everything else just spits the dummy about not having a security profile.
Vine Server is probably the best if you know the person at the other end doesn't have a Mac. VNC is a standard protocol now and is widely used.
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