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Remote Desktop Alternative?
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InactionMan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2007-08-13, 22:54

A family member made the switch and is having some issues (partially due to the fact that they're in their sixties and terrified of technology). Regardless, they live far away and helping them over the phone has driven me to drink. So what what are my alternatives (aside from Apple's pricey little app) for remotely taking control of their Mac to get shit sorted out?

Are there free apps? Fancy websites? Magic?
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Banana
is the next Chiquita
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
 
2007-08-13, 22:59

Hmm... go to thread "SSH Tunneling". There's a linky Brad has detailed in how you can use a free VNC program with the security.

If you don't care about security, any VNC program (e.g. Chicken of VNC) will do for a direct connection. But that will let everyone see what you are doing... Sooo.....
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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2007-08-13, 23:06

Temporary copy of my ancient instructions circa 2003-ish:

http://applenova.com/downloads/vnc.html
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2007-08-13, 23:10

^^^^
What he said. There are ways to connect via VNC that are free. Brad mentions a program in that thread mentioned above, but that program has been replaced by Vine VNC and Vine Server.

One of the keys will also be if your family member will have a static IP address or a dynamic one. If it's dynamic, then you'll need to set up a Dynamic DNS service like DynDns.com. It's free for private use. Once that's set up you'll be able to connect to their home network/computer via a normal URL.

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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2007-08-13, 23:17

OSXvnc is Vine Server. It's simply a different branding.

As for clients, I like Chicken of the VNC.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2007-08-13, 23:29

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad View Post
OSXvnc is Vine Server. It's simply a different branding.

As for clients, I like Chicken of the VNC.
Pshaw, semantics.

I use Chicken of the VNC too though, I just noticed that there was a Vine client but haven't tried it yet.
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Majost
monkey with a tiny cymbal
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Lost
 
2007-08-13, 23:36

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle2472 View Post
One of the keys will also be if your family member will have a static IP address or a dynamic one. If it's dynamic, then you'll need to set up a Dynamic DNS service like DynDns.com. It's free for private use. Once that's set up you'll be able to connect to their home network/computer via a normal URL.
Yeah, but that's tricky to do on the remote computer from afar. Better would be to do the same for *your* computer, and then fire up Chicken of the VNC and have it listen for a connection. Then, simply have your family friend use the dial-out functionality of Vine Server.

That way, you don't need to worry *at all* about their network setup. You simply worry about your own: that your firewall/NAT/router/etc is all routed correctly for the VNC connection to go through.
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2007-08-13, 23:36

I use Vine Server and Chicken of the VNC.

Never had a problem with either.

I like CotVNC's logo too. It's kinda funny.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2007-08-13, 23:57

Quote:
Originally Posted by Majost View Post
Yeah, but that's tricky to do on the remote computer from afar. Better would be to do the same for *your* computer, and then fire up Chicken of the VNC and have it listen for a connection. Then, simply have your family friend use the dial-out functionality of Vine Server.

That way, you don't need to worry *at all* about their network setup. You simply worry about your own: that your firewall/NAT/router/etc is all routed correctly for the VNC connection to go through.
That's a great idea actually! I never thought about doing it in that direction.
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InactionMan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2007-08-14, 07:49

Thanks guys. I'll see if I can figure this VPN shit out. Luckily, the aforementioned relative will be in my grand city soon so I'll be able to fix it in person.

Apple needs to use their giant brains to make this kind of thing simple.
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Bryson
Rocket Surgeon
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: The Canadark
 
2007-08-14, 07:55

You mean, aside from the product that they make that does exactly that, but you want an alternative to?
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InactionMan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2007-08-14, 08:10

Yup! I don't want to spend $300 to help set up a relatives computer especially when I only want to use a tiny subset of ARD's features.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2007-08-14, 09:17

I think Leopard is supposed to bring some sort of feature like this isn't it? Maybe .Mac is needed though. I don't really recall the details.
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torifile
Less than Stellar Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Durham, NC
Send a message via AIM to torifile  
2007-08-14, 09:50

Screw it. Just drink more.
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