Remote Access to MBP

Hello Everyone!

I just ordered a new MacBook Pro a few days ago, and am waiting for it to arrive from China. (Don't worry, I'm tracking the package like a hawk).

In any case, I guess I'm a little trigger happy and can't wait to feel like I'm actually using it, so I'll post a question I've had. Perhaps it would be best answered by merely experimenting with the Mac, but here goes.

To give a little background information, I work for a software company that is mainly a Windows shop. We're developing a Mac version of our flagship product (SecureCRT) right now, but our desktops are mostly PC's.

I frequently establish an SSH2 connection to my home router (Linksys WRT54GL running Tomato) and then forward a Remote Desktop (RDP) connection through that SSH2 connection to get RDP access to my home PCs.

Well, now that my Mac is on the way, I'm trying to figure out if this will still be possible.

A few options that have come to mind as possibilities are as follows:


Does anyone have any experience with such a setup?


Since I wouldn't have administrator access to the PC I'm using at work I'm hoping there's an option that utilizes RDP (which comes native with Windows XP), but I do have virtual machines on which I do have administrative access if I needed to install some sort of client application to get this working.

Thanks in advance!

SecureCRT, I remember those days when i ran my own gentoo linux server a few years back. I did often use that application to transfer files between my desktop PC and the server. And now your are developing it for Mac OS X, that is great news indeed.

Then to your question, I am not sure if I am technically competent enough to answer your question but you can solve your problem with a VNC connection. If remote desktop are the only thing you need that is. There is a VNC server built in Mac OS X from start actually. You just go to System Preferences -> Sharing and enable it there.

Then you can use tightvnc or something similar on your Windows desktop PC to connect to your Mac.

Hi Strukt,

VNC is a great suggestion. I'll need to play around with that.

If I remember correctly, my experience with VNC is that performance is pretty miserable. Do you currently use a VNC connection to your Mac? What's performance like?

Thanks again!

Yes you are right, the performance is pretty sluggish. I use a VNC connection sometimes, mostly when I dont feel like getting up from the chair to do something on the Mac. But for real actual work it might be frustrating. So no, I dont use a VNC connection that often.

I really dont understand why it is this way, I have a 100mbit cabled connection at home, I can stream HD material through my network without any problems. But a simple VNC connection is slow.

As I figured. Well at least there's an option if all else fails. It's nice to run into someone who uses a product a little company such as the one I'm working for developed.

Anyone else have experience with X11 forwarding from their Mac, or RDP access to such?

Have you gave logmein a look?

https://secure.logmein.com/home.asp

I use this to access a bunch of PC's and Mac's.

Hi mdfuller,

That's another option, but I'm not a fan of subscription sites such as that for a service that I should just be able to do with a client and server application.

So far we have VNC and sites like LogMeIn.

Does anyone have a definitive answer in regards to X11 forwarding of data from the Mac?

What do you mean by subscriptions? I have 56 machines on there and have not paid a dime or been bugged by them. Just curious as to what you are talking about. I did the VNC thing back in the day, but all the crap that went with it really sucked.

Hi mdfuller,

My fault! I was looking at the corporate options.

It seems as though LogMeIn may be a valid option!

I'll need to look in to the security aspect of it. I notice that the home page is HTTPS, but I'll need to verify that the SSL encryption layer reaches all the way to my home machine. I don't want a middle man that can catch my passwords in plain text. From a prelimary search it seems as though there's a mode within the LogMeIn service that establishes an encrypted tunnel (SSL I assume) between the computers involved. That would make me feel better.

I agree with you on the VNC issue. It'd be a last resort.

Thanks again for all the help! If anyone else has any other comments I'm all ears (or eyes I guess since we're on a forum).

I'm curious about the X11 forwarding question now. I'll need to do some further digging on the subject.

No worries. Security is the main reason why I scrapped the whole VNC thing and used logmein. I have not had one single problem or security issue. And no I do not work for them! LOL.

You could also built a cheap Windows Home Server box and as long as your running XP Pro, or Vista Ultimate/Business you can access your PC's via a remote desktop connection.

All though this option would require you to run a version of Windows on your Mac, either by Bootcamp or Virtual Machine (Fusion, Parallels, VirtualBox)

Hi JGruber,

I'm familiar with RDP, as that's what I currently use to access my home PC's (forwarded over an SSH2 connection established to my router).

The idea of using RDP to access a VM on the Mac is interesting. I think my ideal would be to actually have access to OSX, not just the file system as it is seen from a Windows VM.

My MacBook Pro just came in today so I went home for lunch and got the setup and update process started. I'll play with a few of these remote access options as time goes on:



I am curious though, why would I need to build myself a cheap Windows Home Server?

WHS will act as the proxy between you and your home PCs, It gives you a website that shows all the connected computers on your network, and will allow you to RDP into them. I use it at home and it works well. It's also a SSL connection.

Hi JGruber,

Got it! Thanks for the clarification.

I've come across a few interesting sites after searching more on this topic. Most intriguing I'd say is xrdp homepage.

I'll keep doing some research on this xrdp option, but until the following are fullfilled I'll probably abstain from giving it a try: