Remote desktop of family computer

[iammike1]

I currently use MobileMe to remote between all of my own systems. My Aunt is buying a Mac and I'd like to be able to remote into her system from here in Japan to help fix any problems she has.

What solutions should I look in to in order to be able to remote to her system without having to give out my MobileMe account information that obviously grants a lot of access from the other end back in to my MM account.

 

[229665]

Hi Mike,
your question indicates a little confusion - as I understand, you're actually using "Back to My Mac" to connect to remote machines, which gets its "list" from the Mobile Me user account.
You could continue this way, logging in with Mobile Me to your Aunt's machine, and configuring Mobile Me to not sync calendar, address book etc etc, and enabling Mobile Me.

Much more appropriate, I would think, would be to install the Teamviewer Instant Customer app on your Aunt's machine, and the Teamviewer Full Version on yours. Both are free for non-commercial use (Customer and Full download links) and I use this very satisfactorily for supporting friends.

I've tried other solutions like Logmein and various VNC configurations, but have found that for "dumb users" Teamviewer is absolutely the best way of connecting and fixing with least stress.
Hope this helps - all the best
James

ps I don't work for them or any remote software vendor!

 

[Dalton63841]

Doesn't iChat have a screen share function built in? I don't know if this is preferable because I haven't used it, but it's an idea...

 

[iammike1]

Thanks for the sweet ideas guys. I think I might have found a different solution but if that doesn't work, I'm probably going to go the Teamviewer direction.

I setup 2 accounts on her system. Main account for her and another Admin account for me.

On my account I added MobileMe and enabled just screen sharing. On her account nothing is logged into MobileMe so no confusion there and no problems if she decides she wants MobileMe for herself in the future.

My only question is if when her account is logged on, will I still have Back to my Mac access to the system. I'll be testing that tomorrow from work. Can't really simulate it here on my home network.

 

[229665]

Interesting plan - let us know how it goes. As is always the case, the next OS release (Lion) is rumoured to have improved remote access tools!

 

[iammike1]

FYI, the MobileMe solution I posted above did work and I am able to use Back to my Mac from work while the non-MobileMe account is logged on.

 

[marc11]

FYI, the MobileMe solution I posted above did work and I am able to use Back to my Mac from work while the non-MobileMe account is logged on.

Yep it works, I use it for my son's Mac and I do not have the family plan. BTW Mike I am moving to Tokyo in two weeks, let's hope they settle those reactors down soon!

 

[iammike1]

Don't worry, it's really not a big deal in Tokyo. The media has it spun up to be a lot worse and more dangerous than it really is.