Controlling my mac over the internet?

[cwright]

So Christmas break at the university is coming up soon (on the 17th...)
I don't think I'm going to bring my G5 home, but I'd like to know if it's possible to leave the computer on and control it from the mac at home via the internet? RemoteDesktop would be nice, but I'm pretty sure it only works on local networks.

Are there any (free) solutions to do this?

Thanks!

 

[mrichmon]

So Christmas break at the university is coming up soon (on the 17th...)
I don't think I'm going to bring my G5 home, but I'd like to know if it's possible to leave the computer on and control it from the mac at home via the internet? RemoteDesktop would be nice, but I'm pretty sure it only works on local networks.

Are there any (free) solutions to do this?

Thanks!

Any control via the internet will be fairly slow but in many cases it is usable for things like mail and slow web browsing. I have remote desktop enabled on my home server and tunnel the VNC connection over ssh and control the machine from work and some internet cafes without any problems other than the slow refresh speed.

A big question you need to answer is what type of machine you would have at home from which you want to control your G5 at school?

 

[stoid]

I too recently set up a VNC between two of my machines. It works great if you don't mind the horrific refresh rates (think 1 frame per second).

If you are your own network admin (or your roommate is) it shouldn't be had to set up, however if you are behind a campus network, it'd probably be easier to tote the G5 and a 21 inch CRT with enough extension cable to the top of Mt. Everest than to convince a campus network admin to help you set up the network to allow you to VNC.

 

[mrichmon]

If you are your own network admin (or your roommate is) it shouldn't be had to set up, however if you are behind a campus network, it'd probably be easier to tote the G5 and a 21 inch CRT with enough extension cable to the top of Mt. Everest than to convince a campus network admin to help you set up the network to allow you to VNC.

This is a fair point, but if you tunnel vnc over ssh then it is much easier to argue for ssh to be opened up. On most campuses where I have worked and studied ssh has been left open intentionally.

 

[cwright]

good point, I don't know that I'd be able to get through the school's network.

But anyway, if it did work, I have a G5 iMac, a Mac Mini, and an old 450mhz G4 tower at home that i could use to access my school computer.

I don't need it to be fast–I'd just like to have access to the files on my hard drives.

 

[mduser63]

good point, I don't know that I'd be able to get through the school's network.

But anyway, if it did work, I have a G5 iMac, a Mac Mini, and an old 450mhz G4 tower at home that i could use to access my school computer.

I don't need it to be fast–I'd just like to have access to the files on my hard drives.

If you just need access to the files, you could just turn FTP on on the G5 in the Sharing preferences, and access your computer that way. You still might have a problem accessing it through the school's network though. It would have to have it's own external IP, because I'm assuming you can't forward ports to it...

 

[Counterfit]

Well, first, I suggest taking your G5 home if you're driving, and/or if your break is 3 weeks or longer, or if your school shuts off power and/or heat to the dorms during break.

You won't be able to use VNC (well, easily) if your school has a firewall, which won't be a problem (I think) if they're on Internet2. A big influence on how good the experience will be is the upload speed for the server, or the download speed of the client, whichever is slower. With a 256kbps upload, you should use 8-bit color MAX.



stoid: depending on the connection, it should be faster. If you're using Share My Desktop as a server, don't. It's really slow, so go with OSXVNC instead.

 

[mrichmon]

good point, I don't know that I'd be able to get through the school's network.

But anyway, if it did work, I have a G5 iMac, a Mac Mini, and an old 450mhz G4 tower at home that i could use to access my school computer.

I don't need it to be fast–I'd just like to have access to the files on my hard drives.

As another poster suggested, just open ftp on your G5. Alternatively, assuming you can navigate around the filesystem in the terminal you can just allow remote logins and use ssh and scp to access and download the files you need.

 

[cwright]

Thanks for all the info!

I'll experiment with VNC and FTP options, but I'm starting to lean towards just bringing the computer home with me.