Remote Problems with Screen Sharing

[ArmPol]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I am having problems with my Mac Mini Server 2011.

Server is running Mavericks server, my nMBP 2012 is running Yosemite (well).

I can connect to my server (I am 3,000km away from it) to transfer and read files with no problems at all. I used to be able to screen share with it also. Recently though I cannot screen share, I just get a message saying 'connecting to server' and then another saying 'connection failed to server, please make sure screen sharing is enabled'!

Screen sharing was definitely switched on and I have not switched it off or any other properties that would have switched it off.

Any ideas what could have changed? Anything I can do to remotely make changes if needed?

Thanks

 

[ArmPol]

Nobody have any ideas?

 

[dimme]

NO idea what is going on,but I have had a problem connecting remotely once in a while. My problem is due to the fact I do not have a static ip from my isp. So as a back up I have installed google's chrome desktop.

 

[ArmPol]

I do not have a static IP either, but I can connect for file sharing every time. Just that screen sharing will never connect now - could before with no problems.

 

[diepalme]

Used to have problems with VNC on Yosemite running Yosemite Server beta as well, but since Yosemite DP7 and server beta 4 everything is running smoothly again. Considered updating?

You really don't need a static ip nowadays anymore. You just have to configure the forwarding correctly in your router and you can even use Back to my Mac. Else just get a dyn.com account or one from no-ip.com. Personally I prefer dyndns but no-ip still has some basic plans for free, I think.

 

[ArmPol]

Hi Diepalme, thanks for your input.

I did not know that there was a Yosemite Server Beta. Is it possible to update the server remotely without screen sharing? Failing that I will be home in a couple of months and I will do it then - maybe even past betas then

 

[diepalme]

I can highly recommend apples remote desktop admin. It allows you to remotely manage your mac and windows clients and servers. Costing 69.99€ here the price is quite steep, but I have been using it for years now to manage dozens of computers over the internet (as opposed to lan deployments) and love it. Especially the remote install (that you'll need to install anything without ssh or vnc) and its unix shell features.

As for the server you'll have to install the yosemite server.app from your apple seed account on your yosemite machine and use that to connect to the mavericks server on the other end. As for remote management I would always recommend switching on that option in the system preferences and not screen sharing, as this manages both. If the ip you are using is still valid you can even try using an ios app like mocha VNC (that one's free) to try to connect and see if it is actually your yosemite setup or not.

Were you actually only using the back to my mac feature from the finder side-bar? If so and that's not working try opening up the screen sharing app directly (/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Screen\ Sharing.app) and connect from there. When I first had issues connecting to a new yosemite server test setup (I know that was the other way round) this really helped.

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And btw. If your server at home is on mavericks, you can't update that to the yosemite server beta, as you'll have to run 10.10 for server 4. What I meant was to install yosemite server beta on your 10.10 machine and use the server app to manage the mavericks one at home.

 

[ArmPol]

Thanks for the comprehensive advice Diepalme, I will take a look and follow your advice.

 

[aicul]

I had (have) the screen sharing connect issue. What I discovered is that there was some timeout because of "something" that is done when "standard" apple screen share is used.

I now use "Remote Desktop - VNC" (freeware when I got it) that actually is equivalent to apple's "Screen share".

This works perfect.