VNC server/client

[Farabomb]

Yea, I'm pretty sure this thing is going to give me headaches but "it was cheap" so that means I will have another thing to babysit. I don't have time to get what I need done now but thus is life.

One pressman's thumb is shredded with cuts, you think that's not going to play havoc with the reader? I had him scan his pinky just so I didn't have to deal with it every day.

[Nick Burns]

We use http://www.sundialtime.com/ for $595. Support is stellar, the actual developer remotes in when there's an issue or we need assistance and he's always been prompt. This thing has never punched in the wrong employee, you register the print at three angles and it works well.

I use Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac to remotely control a Windows PC from the Mac. There is nothing better and it's free. The built in Mac VNC only does Mac to Mac I think.

RDC does rock the speed with it's compression and I like it, but for convenience in a multi platform environment, I like VNC. And no Joe, it does them all, I use built in OS X Screen Sharing app to connect to all platforms, all servers (Real, Tight, Vine, etc..).

Yes, if you have a VNC server installed on a Windows PC  you can connect to them. For just Mac to Mac with no 3rd party server installed it (built in VNC) works great. I was more talking just the NT with terminal services running and I don't think the built in OS X VNC can connect to it.

My misunderstanding Joe, no it won't do that.

I forgot to respond earlier on the OS X vpn built in thing, OS X client is actually the same as OS X server, it has the guts and services, they just don't give you the nifty GUI to control them. But I have gone down this path of trying to hack this and it is a freaking nightmare. I ended up finding a kid in the UK (14 at the time) that had this gritty craft already polished up into a nice GUI and purchased his for 15 pounds. It works awesome. He abandoned support shortly after I purchased (he was snatched up for a high paying job) but has since returned to supporting it. He was very apologetic to me at the time that he would be too busy to help me in the future and offered me a full refund which I declined. It is a sheer joy when I am at home being actually connected to work network.

Incidentally, LogMeIn was also originally the work of a 14 year old kid and was formerly Hamachi, which LogMeIn now also owns. I figured out back when Symantec was using it to give me remote assistance, that if they thought it was the most secure, it would be my choice as well in these types of products. Symantec liked it well enough to later on buy them out.

If you're in a pinch to help someone remotely on a PC, this one is absolutely awesome, it's a free 1 700Kb .exe file (no install) that you can email them and it will run while still in the email attachment! If they're smart enough to get their email and click an attachment, you're good to go. The speed on this one is insanity too, I think it rivals even RDC. The one caveat is it's PC only so I have to run it from boot camp or parallels, I haven't tried wine yet (on the to do list).
 

[Nick Burns]

Well so far my combo of RDC and VPN looks like it will do what I need. I can remote in with logmein and be able to hit all the boxes I need from home.

I'm confused here, are you referring to your logmein as your vpn? If not, and you have vpn, then you don't need to bother with logmein, your vnc will be secure traversing your vpn.

I like and use logmein in certain situations, but it's way more cumbersome than vnc and unnecessary if you have a vpn.

[Farabomb]

Sorry for being confusing. I use a combo of RDC and VNC, not a VPN internally when I'm sitting at my desk in order to control all the other boxes. When I'm at home I have logmein on 2 boxes and it allows me to do whatever I need to do from home.

Stupid spelling, I never was good at it.

[Joe]

Logmein sucks on OS X Lion. It's like dialup with a lot of line noise.

[Farabomb]

It's not much better on snow leper and my crap DSL line I have at home. Hope Verizon gets it's 4G service up by me soon. I can get it one mountain over but that's by much more affluent Warwick.

[Nick Burns]

Got it, the VPN is a luxury, I had several old B&W G3's laying around gathering dust and just wanted the experience learning the ins and outs. With iVPN being so cheap, it was well worth it, it's crazy stable and I can use my VNC shortcuts without having to SSH tunnel in first.

I had already automated the SSH tunnel, but what if I could eliminate clicking that extra button? Everything I do is driven by my eternal laziness.

Previously I was only going wireless through my VPN, but this weekend I set up my Mac Pro to go through it wired which in turn goes into my Sonos wireless music system and then back into my router. Because I can.

[Farabomb]

I don't consider it eternal laziness, I think of it more of conservation of energy. It took you effort to research how to avoid that extra button click so that's not lazy. Some people (my boss) think it's a bad thing but I think choosing the path of least resistance is just choosing the most efficient way.