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How to Get Back to Your Mac For Free
Posted by Sean Fallon at 9:00 AM on March 15, 2008
Being able to access your Mac remotely from anywhere in the world would certainly be useful—but I'll be dammed if I am going to fork over US$100 to the .Mac service for the privilege. Fortunately, cheapskates like myself don't have to spend a dime on Back to Your Mac thanks to a simple how-to guide from our friends at Lifehacker.
This solution does not have all of the bells and whistles as BTMM (like encryption options and a near zero configuration set up) but the bottom line is that you will be able to have complete control over your desktop remotely when all is said and done. Hit the link for instructions. [Lifehacker]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
thechansen
Posted 12:55 PM 15/3/08
I am a sucker who paid his $99 VNC fee (well Apple paid kinda when they gave me $100 store credit). Real back to my mac is awesome and thank you Samsonsu for that little tip.
thechansen
Matt Schlicht
Posted 12:55 PM 15/3/08
Awesome
Matt Schlicht
samsonsu
Posted 12:55 PM 15/3/08
In case you don't know, here is a trick that turns on more controls for OS X's screen sharing client. The most useful control it adds is the colordepth option. With it you can pick the best colordepth that works for your network bandwidth.
defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing \
'NSToolbar Configuration ControlToolbar' -dict-add 'TB Item Identifiers' \
'(Scale,Control,Share,Curtain,Capture,FullScreen,GetClipboard,SendClipboard,Quality)'
samsonsu
samsonsu
Posted 12:55 PM 15/3/08
I tried similar method before but found a problem which i believe is related to VNC's network performance.
If your home computer has a network connection with slow upload bandwidth (like my DSL: 3Mbps downlink but only 384KB uplink -- which is effectively <50Kbytes/ps upload bandwidth), the remote control experience will be really bad -- every change of the home computer screen takes a long time to refresh on the laptop.
Windows remote desktop is a lot better when running over limited bandwidth (not to start the OS war...). I'm not sure how it did that, maybe with some compression or local GUI rendering. My question is, how to do the same thing on leopard? Any hidden "compression" or "local GUI rendering" options for OS X's VNC server?
samsonsu
gimmeslack12
Posted 12:55 PM 15/3/08
Huh, I already use every method described in this article to control my 3 Macs from my work Vista machine. Dammit I should have posted the thing.
gimmeslack12
MacMasterShane
Posted 12:55 PM 15/3/08
Or, you can just use the new LogMeIn.com Beta mac version.... works awesome, and from just about any computer you can run firefox on.
MacMasterShane
MisterSleep
Posted 12:55 PM 15/3/08
@me: and continually commenting on Giz probably isn't the first step in doing that.
MisterSleep
MisterSleep
Posted 12:55 PM 15/3/08
I've got the opposite problem. I need to figure out how to get away from my Mac, away from email/computer/technology, and -- God willing -- see the sun every once in a while. Doing so from anywhere in the world would be a nice bonus.
MisterSleep
Bachus_snowman
Posted 6:07 PM 15/3/08
No No Nooooooooooooo... I dont want to go anywhere near my puter when I am away from it., I already spend almost 12 hours in office on it...
Even if they opffer me $1000 extra per month, I am telling my employers NOOOOO
Is there any decent job which does not involve even calculators ?
...
Bachus_snowman
banmojo
Posted 11:49 PM 15/3/08
If one is 'cheap' than one isn't going to be buying Mac. I checked out the airbook last weekend - it is crazy thin and would make a fantastic Eee replacement -> for the similar price range :^)
At 1800+ for intro models, I'll be waiting for a significant price drop. stevie already has me for 4 or 5 ipods, he's not getting me for any more crap until the iphone version 2 comes out. And even then I'll be waiting a few months to see what the fanboys have to say about the new hardware before I purchase one.
Then again, I'm in a pissy mood this morning (ahhh marital bliss) so stevie's on my shit list. Go figure.
banmojo
djkibblesnbits
Posted 1:30 AM 16/3/08
...Orrr... you can get the real deal .Mac service for $69.99 from Amazon. Saves you $30 bucks from the original $99 price. I've honestly been spoiled by the .Mac service so much, I can't imagine my life without it right now. Sure, you can take advantage of a lot of the things .Mac has to offer for free using other methods, but I'd rather pay what amounts to a reasonable amount of money for a practical zero-config setup.
Still, good to know that I can get "Back to My Mac" access if I'm ever in a pickle. :-)
djkibblesnbits
pdditty
Posted 3:20 AM 16/3/08
Just like MacMasterShane said, www.logemein.com. It works great and its totally free. You can access any desktop from any internet browser.
pdditty
SneakerFiend
Posted 5:12 AM 16/3/08
What i've always wondered is if any of these softwares actually let you turn on your computer or if you need to leave your computer on while you're on vacation just to see some of the files on your computer.
If i got a mac i'd buy the one year subscription for $70
SneakerFiend
thechansen
Posted 6:55 AM 16/3/08
You have to leave it on and awake but there is a way to remotely wake a sleeping computer. I have a widget that I hit and it wakes up my powermac server. That thing is way too loud to leave on.
thechansen
lithivm
Posted 5:38 AM 18/3/08
WWW.LOGMEIN.COM => Its free!! been using it for years it works on both PC/Macs
lithivm