Remote access to iMac

[Donald]

Looking to possiblity provide remote access to a iMac at church for some currently stuck at home. The church has all Unifi hardware for security gateway & switches, etc. No VPN. No open ports.

Is there any cloud based product that the church iMac can connect to and then someone at home can connect to this same cloud based product and gain access that way?

I can view all the Unifi software and hardware remotely. Just looking for a similar remote access product for a iMac that is behind the Unifi firewall.

 

[kschachn]

Chrome Remote Desktop is still available, although it has been reported to be on the way out at some point.

 

[bunnspecial]

TeamViewer?

 

[Pew]

I use splashtop but is only free for PCs on the LAN, otherwise it requires a paid account for the business (cloud) version.

 

[Hall]

What do you mean a cloud-based service ? You want a (semi) direct access from your client machine to host machine. I used to use TeamViewer for personal use (helping my Mom, etc) and even for accessing my work Mac from home but TeamViewer stopped that, well at least for free. They can/will detect or determine if either IP is "business" (Spectrum, for example, gives this away) and will shut it down unless you pay either $25 or $50/month.

 

[uc50ic4more]

If you can open up port(s) for either VNC or RDP, your iMac very likely has "Screen Sharing" capacity built right in: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/mac-help/mh11848/mac

Otherwise, a cloud-based solution that does not require any buggery with firewalls and is NOT named "TeamViewer" (I've had them decide, wrongfully, that my activity was commercial and shut down my connection more than once; and once was enough) is AnyDesk.

 

[Rand]

If they are stuck at home and have a computer

What do they need remote access to the imac for?

 

[uc50ic4more]

If they are stuck at home and have a computer

What do they need remote access to the imac for?

Presumably to access applications that are exclusively on the iMac, access data that is only on the iMac, or to use the iMac to access the LAN which might not be available outside the building.

 

[Donald]

Presumably to access applications that are exclusively on the iMac, access data that is only on the iMac, or to use the iMac to access the LAN which might not be available outside the building.

The person at home needs to help with graphics on the iMac at church for Sunday services. The person at home has a disability and cannot come into church until she trains a new service animal for her disability.

 

[Donald]

Looking at a VPN or RealVNC.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Looking at a VPN or RealVNC.

If you're looking for a way to **log in to the iMac and assume control of its screen**, be that over a VPN or in the unencrypted internet, you're still going to need a client to "talk" to a server of some sort on the iMac. I am pretty sure that the iMac'd have built-in VNC and RDP screen sharing - If over the normal ol' internet you'll probably hav eto undergo the complexity of firewall tweakage; if using a VPN you'll still have to set up the VPN.

I'd recommend, wholeheartedly, Tailscale, which is mostly, but also just sorta/kinda, a VPN. You essentially set up the account with them, then install the client(s) on up to 5 machines for free, and they can all speak to each other using the other machine's Tailscale IP or DNS. I use this for tunneling RDP over SSH with several clients.

Solutions like Teamviewer and Anydesk, both of which are the absolute simplest to set up and use, cover all of that for you.

 

[John Galt]

So the church has an iMac but what about the person with the infirmity at home? They have an iMac too?

Apple to Apple Remote access control is built in to the Apple software, nothing to buy.

I have an iMac. Via a link available on the Apple chat application, my son takes over my iMac and does his taxes on my iMac using my software. He has been doing this for at least ten years. He saves his work and then emails himself a .pdf of the completed taxes.

I just have to be there at the beginning when he wants to take control remotely of my iMac and click on “allow remote access “ and he takes over. He sees my desktop on his Mac as if he was sitting in front of it. Works like a charm!

 

[uc50ic4more]

So the church has an iMac but what about the person with the infirmity at home? They have an iMac too?

Apple to Apple Remote access control is built in to the Apple software, nothing to buy.

I have an iMac. Via a link available on the Apple chat application, my son takes over my iMac and does his taxes on my iMac using my software. He has been doing this for at least ten years. He saves his work and then emails himself a .pdf of the completed taxes.

I just have to be there at the beginning when he wants to take control remotely of my iMac and click on “allow remote access “ and he takes over. He sees my desktop on his Mac as if he was sitting in front of it. Works like a charm!

1) With an Apple Apple setup like that, was there not any firewall tomfoolery to concern yourself with? If not, maybe they're doing the same kind of reverse tunneling that Microsoft uses as well as Teamviewer and Anydesk. Good to know.
2) I am surprised there is not a setting that would allow for "unattended" assumption of screen control that would remove the necessity for you to be at the machine in order to allow it.

 

[brianl703]

A friend of mine uses this:

GoToMyPC Remote Access - Remote Desktop Software for Mac or PC

Remotely access your computer from anywhere on any device! Discover productivity and flexibility with GoToMyPC remote desktop software. Try it Free!

get.gotomypc.com

 

[hemioiler]

Normally I just ask the ISP for a static IP address, then add that IP to one my domains on godaddy. At that point you can just tunnel VNC/RDP through SSH (I believe macs have ssh access do they not? Been a while since I used one).

If a static IP is too much, there still should be some ddns services available. I'd never leave VNC available on an open port, that's begging for trouble. Not sure about RDP either, all my access is through SSH but this might be more complicated than a home type setup calls for, other paid solutions might work easier for this.

 

[Donald]

So the church has an iMac but what about the person with the infirmity at home? They have an iMac too?

Apple to Apple Remote access control is built in to the Apple software, nothing to buy.

I have an iMac. Via a link available on the Apple chat application, my son takes over my iMac and does his taxes on my iMac using my software. He has been doing this for at least ten years. He saves his work and then emails himself a .pdf of the completed taxes.

I just have to be there at the beginning when he wants to take control remotely of my iMac and click on “allow remote access “ and he takes over. He sees my desktop on his Mac as if he was sitting in front of it. Works like a charm!

Both devices are iMac.

 

[Donald]

So I was on one iMac (MACA) on the same network at the iMac we want to share the screen on (MACB). Screen Sharing is turned on on MACB. The article I read said there would be a screen sharing app under utilities on MACA. But I could not find any screen sharing app under Utilities or via Search on MACA.

 

[John Galt]

Donald, I can help with this. First question is what operating system is being used secondly, are both iMacs on the same OS. It’s not really a stand alone application like in the windows world. Screen sharing is built into the Apple OS at the core level but it needs to be enabled on both iMacs.

 

[John Galt]

Start a screen sharing session with another Mac​

If you’ve been given permission, you can view and control the screen of another Mac on your network.

1. On the Mac you want to share, choose Apple menu
   
   > System Settings, click General
   
   in the sidebar, then click Sharing on the right. (You may need to scroll down.)
2. Turn on Screen Sharing, then click the Info button
   
   on the right.
3. Note the name and address of the Mac (it’s listed at the top), then click Done.
   The name looks like “iMac (7)” or “Joe’s MacBook Pro.”
   The address looks like vnc://[IPAddress] or vnc://[Name.Domain].
4. On your Mac, do one of the following:
   • Connect using the name: Click the Finder icon
     
     in the Dock to open a Finder window. In the Locations section of the sidebar, click Network, double-click the Mac you want to share, then click Share Screen.
     If no items appear in the Locations section of the sidebar, hold the pointer over the word Locations, then click the arrow
     
     .
   • Connect using the address: In the Finder, choose Go > Connect to Server, enter the address of the Mac you want to share, then click Connect.
5. If prompted, enter your user name and password, then click Sign In.
   If both computers are logged in using the same Apple ID, the screen sharing session starts. If they’re not, you’re prompted to enter the user name and password of a user who is allowed screen sharing access on that computer, or you can request permission to share the screen if the computer allows it.
6. If someone else is already connected to the Mac as a remote user, a dialog asks if you want to share the display with the other remote user (Share Display) or log in concurrently using a different user name and screen (Log In).
   If you choose Log In, you share the Mac with the other remote user, but you won’t share the same screen.

 

[Donald]

Start a screen sharing session with another Mac​

If you’ve been given permission, you can view and control the screen of another Mac on your network.

1. On the Mac you want to share, choose Apple menu
   
   > System Settings, click General
   
   in the sidebar, then click Sharing on the right. (You may need to scroll down.)
2. Turn on Screen Sharing, then click the Info button
   
   on the right.
3. Note the name and address of the Mac (it’s listed at the top), then click Done.
   The name looks like “iMac (7)” or “Joe’s MacBook Pro.”
   The address looks like vnc://[IPAddress] or vnc://[Name.Domain].
4. On your Mac, do one of the following:
   • Connect using the name: Click the Finder icon
     
     in the Dock to open a Finder window. In the Locations section of the sidebar, click Network, double-click the Mac you want to share, then click Share Screen.
     If no items appear in the Locations section of the sidebar, hold the pointer over the word Locations, then click the arrow
     
     .
   • Connect using the address: In the Finder, choose Go > Connect to Server, enter the address of the Mac you want to share, then click Connect.
5. If prompted, enter your user name and password, then click Sign In.
   If both computers are logged in using the same Apple ID, the screen sharing session starts. If they’re not, you’re prompted to enter the user name and password of a user who is allowed screen sharing access on that computer, or you can request permission to share the screen if the computer allows it.
6. If someone else is already connected to the Mac as a remote user, a dialog asks if you want to share the display with the other remote user (Share Display) or log in concurrently using a different user name and screen (Log In).
   If you choose Log In, you share the Mac with the other remote user, but you won’t share the same screen.

So when you turn on screen sharing you don't setup a list of all the people you allow to share your screen?

If your trying to share the screen of another iMac and it prompts for an Apple userid and password can it be my personal Apple userid and password or does it need to be the Apple userid and password that was used to logon to the iMac I am trying to share.