VNC: Remote Desktop for Free
Have you ever been at school, work, or a friend’s house, and needed to get on your home computer? If so, you may want to set up a Remote Desktop system. Remote Desktop systems let you control your computer from other computers, giving you access to all your files and applications. You may even want to control computers on your home LAN. Apple’s Remote Desktop starts at $300, but there is a free and easy alternative.
VNC, or Virtual Network Computing, is a remote desktop protocol that many free clients and servers utilize. OSXVNc, the server I use, is available here. When you start the app, you are given a preferences window, in which you can set the server password and more. Now, if you want to access your computer from outside your network, and you are using a router, you will need to forward the port 5900 to the computer on which the server is running. Note that in order to access your computer remotely, your computer must be on and connected to the internet.
On the client side, there are many options available. If you are looking for a Mac VNC client, I have found Chicken of the VNC the best, which is also free. But if you are not on your own Mac, there is a very easy way to connect to your home computer. RealVNC, who makes VNC clients and servers for Linux and Windows, also makes a Java applet VNC client that can run on almost any computer. This Google search will give you many mirrors for this Java applet. All you need to do is enter your IP or domain name, as well as your password. Speaking of IP addresses, if you don’t have a domain for your home network, you will need to remember or write down your IP address. If you plan to use VNC frequently, you may consider getting a free domain name from a service like DynDNS. Also, your IP will most likely change every time you restart your modem, so you may want to grab a updating utility, which are also available at DynDNS.
Remote Desktop may not work well with laptop owners and those who don’t keep their Macs running all the time, but nonetheless, VNC is a great, free solution.
Has anyone else had trouble with the newer Vine Server that replaced osxvnc? I upgraded to vine and ever since, i’ve not been able to connect to my home machine.
ive been using chicken of the vnc and realy like it. easy to set up.
I love ARD.. it’s great fun if you know the admin pass at school
My computer’s both a VNC server and an FTP server, which came in handy when I forgot to print out my report. Just had to use VNC to save it in a .doc and used FTP to download it.
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I have OSX Tiger which as built in VNC (just turn on Apple remote desktop) but I’ve found the built in server seems very slow (and seems to give error messages on Windows VNC clients). Using OSVNC (aka Vinserver) I get steady fast connections with quick screen refreshes, on the same clinets in Windows which seem to ‘choke’ on the Tiger VNC server. Anyone else notice this?
Sounds confusing
VNC is great, it’s just weird to me that Apple charges so much for their software when other is free.
I guess its kind of like Mac OS X vs Vista, do you want to pay $129 for full features or $400 for full features?
The Apple system is much more high quality than VNC – it actually looks like you are using the computer you are controlling. Same with the remote desktop that comes with WinXP Pro.
for those of you who would rather have a secure connection via ssh, check out this http://urltea.com/2v?mac2mac or if you are securely connecting to a windows machine http://urltea.com/2w?mac2windoze
Optionally, you guys want to check out hamachi, a zero-config vpn app which i use to play dota
Great find! Going to check-out “Chicken of the VNC” and see how it compares to ARD?
http://www.switchingtomac.com
I can connect using the apple remote desktop setting but for some reason VineServer doesn’t work for me. I can’t connect to it. Anyone else have this problem?
I had no problems with Vine Server (on G5). Maybe you guys are setting it up wrong, or trying to access the wrong port.
Also, FYI, you really need to also read about using ssh tunneling to secure your connection. Otherwise, bad people can see your network traffic and have full access to your machine.
Why wouldn’t you just use the VNC server built into the (free) Apple Remote Desktop Server? Just select “VNC viewers my control screen with password” option and add password. No need for 3rd party apps.
And you can still use CoTVNC as your client (on OSX). (I’d still recommend using the SSH tunneling to make the connection more secure) No need for ARD if you’re not wanting the advanced ARD features like app distribution.
Only feature that I see missing in this setup is screen scaling on the client. (And that the current CoTVNC has a bug that switches the middle and right mouse buttons)
What about built-in server in new OS?
VNC is pretty awesome.
Remote Desktop for Mac is really geared towards administrators working with many Apple machines (think school IT departments) You can do so much more than just control a live session. You can push out files and updates and really have full administrative control over a large OSX LAN.
VNC is very laggy.
Linksys WRT54GL + DD-WRT (VPN version) = Remote Awesomeness!
I thought it was impossible to get around the work firewall to connect to my home network. But with the above combination, it was easy, as long as I use port 8080 to get out of the firewall. Now I just need to get home to set up the VNC server on my Mac, and I’ll be good to go.
[...] Desktop on your Mac for Free Filed under: Uncategorized — recar @ 1:23 am Remote Desktop on your Mac for Free Access your Mac from any computer with the use of VNC. This article describes the process of [...]
adin:
The built-in VNC server is very, very slow, even for a LAN connection. One problem is that it uses lossless compression, and that’s not ideal for all the composited eye candy that Aqua uses. It’s almost unusable, IMO.
OSXvnc uses JPEG compression, and although JPEG compression is not good for text, in practice it performs so much faster that it’s worth the artifacting.
Is this suppose to be news? I have being doing this for years in Windows. I don’t get it……
Just for the record, probably one of the most significant differences between the built-in VNC server and Vine Server/OSXVNC is that the latter supports multiple sessions on Tiger: i.e. you can have one person sitting at one user’s login at the computer itself, and you can be VNC’d in to your desktop (like Fast User Switching) via VNC. Quite convenient, but the built-in VNC server doesn’t support it, AFAIK.
And, yes, that is one thing Windows (the expensive versions, at least) has been able do before Macs. VNC itself has been around for Mac OS X since version 10.1, if not earlier, I think.
VNC is the best thing since sliced bread for anyone with multiple linux boxes….:) Its soo cool to use from school to home!
I figured it out that it is because i wasn’t blocking my computer’s sleep setting. Thanks.
You don’t need to install any VNC server on your mac:
1. All you need is a VNC client on any computer and then you go the your sharing windows under system preferences and activate the Remote Desktop from the list of apps that you can share. Then open the preferences/options for Remote Desktop and check the box for “VNC Users can access this computer using this password”. Type in a password and your done.
No need to install not even the Apple Remote Desktop application.
2. Apple Remote Desktop application may have vnc capability in case someone wants to connect to other computers (non mac) via vnc.
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For more tips on Mac, visit http://www.mostofmymac.com
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It seems too hard for me. I’ve seached in internet and found an easy and rother cheep TechinlineRemoteDesctop
I forgot to give adress: http://www.techinline.com
Free deskshare tool ….
Try it out!
website: http://www.viewmydesk.com
It’s not very safely. I use VNC but somebody hack my laptop with VNC.
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Nice points…
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For more options for remote desktop sharing visit this ….http://ultimatetechbase.blogspot.com/2008/07/remote-control-your-desktop-from.html
How to do a remote connection to another vista computer from a vista computer, without installing any external software.
[...] describes the process of setting up a VNC server on your Mac, and how to access it from afar.read more | digg [...]
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I’m having trouble accessing a computer on my server from a computer that is outside of the network. Is there any help you can give me?
i have to see all computers for in my office
nice article
Johannes and Brainscan both touched on a very important issue, and that is security. I graduated last year but I certainly wouldn’t have trusted my school’s cables to call up control of my computer. Know knows what they would have taken? It’s even worse now that I have to travel for my job. There I have to use internet cafes or worse. Therefore make sure that whatever software you decide to use that it is as secure as possible.
please help. I am a non technical person who has just switched to a mac. I am trying to access our work server which I used to access through the remote desktop that was available in accessories on my PC…..
I am now just simply looking for a free download to allow me to work on the work server from my mac at home…. any links to what I need is greatly appreciated. I am having a hard time understanding most of what is posted here….
Thanks for your pointers.. I found Chicken of the VNC to be a great control interface. Ever so easy for someone not so savvy with networking and servers.
I found this tutorial absolutely perfect:
http://www.macminicolo.net/Mac_VNC_tutor.html
I now control my Mac Pro with Mac OS 10.5.7 with my Powerbook of same system over wireless using my Netgear router!
Nice article. I’m going to spain and need a way to access my laptop in the states. I will research this and many items mentioned in the comments. Thanks.