remote control your home PC with your Mac, and vice versa...

Hey All,

BACK TO YOUR PC!



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I have just recently discovered the world of remote computing! SSH, VNC, FTP, HTTP home servers, ok so I already knew about them, I just didn't care to learn how to implement them.

I have a Fujitstu N6210 that is always sitting at my desk at home, sometimes doing things if I have it set working on something when I leave, but wouldn't it be great if I always had complete access to it? yes, yes it would, that quetion was definitely not rhetorical.

that's where all those crazy little 3 Letter miracles come into play.

I recommend looking all of them up to get a better understanding overall, and then dive into getting them all setup, which is really quite simple.

The first step to getting all of these implemented correctly is getting your PC (or Mac) which ever computer is the static one that you want to access remotely, as well as your network setup properly.

The first step is setting up PC to have a static IP address. With some ISP this may not be possible, but I have found that most ISPs maintain your IP, I use TimeWarners RoadRunner HighSpeed(Turbo!) for example, and I have not had any problems.

To get your XP, Vista, machine setup to have a static IP the process is simple, just follow a guide online that someone else has made of course!

here is a guide for XP - http://portforward.com/networking/static-xp.htm

the next step I recommend, is actually forwarding ports on the machine you want to access, as well as in your network, assuming you are using a router.

Setting up Port Forwarding on the PC is another simple process.

Just go to your firewall settings, Control Panel/Security Center (in XP), and choose Windows Firewall at the bottom of the Window, in this window, open the Exceptions Tab and choose "Add Port" here you simply type in the name for the Port you want to open (HTTP, FTP, SSH, VNC) and the corresponding port number:

HTTP: 80
FTP: 21
SSH: 22
VNC: 5900

you can change the actual port number you would like to use, but it will not really make anything more secure, if people want to know what ports are open on your computer, there are many simple ways for them to find out.

The next step is to open up the ports in your router, which is also a quick process.

I use the Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (N), so my guide will clarify how to setup this router specifically.

On your MAC (or pc if you would like) open your Airport Utility app, in your Utilities folder on the Mac, Start Menu on the PC, your router will be discovered,

Choose Manual Setup, put in your admin password (not your Wireless netowrk password, whatever you setup to be the base station admin password) and you will be greeted with many options.

Click on the advanced Tab and you will also see a tab called Port Mapping, you guessed it, click on that tab.

Here is the Port Forwarding section of the AEBSn, just choose + on the bottom of the window, most of the common ports already have presets, and recommend using those, if you don't see what you are looking for, just make a custom one just like you did on the XP machine.

You will have to now Update the settings and restart your basestation.

alright you have now setup your host system and network for all of this good stuff.

at this point I am only going to explain how to setup a VNC client, from Mac to PC, and later I would like to continue to add to this guide.

Alright for VNC, which is short for Virtual Network Computing, or something similar, who plans on calling it by its full name anyway?, you need a VNC server system on the machine you want to connect to, in this case your home PC.

for that I use UltraVNC - http://www.uvnc.com/

install and setup of this software is quite simple, I recommend just using all of the defaults and if you need specific info I would check the support on that site. The main thing you need to setup is the VNC passord, once you have that setup and you know that the VNC service is up and running, if you aren't sure, go to UltraVNC in your start menu
/Ultra VNC server/ and Choose Install WinVNC Service, you should then see an icon in your taskbar, confirming that the service is running.

if all has gone well, you are ready to move over to your Mac where the process for accessing the machine is quite simple.

the only info you need from your PC is your IP address of that specific machine, which is why you setup a static IP earlier, which you should still remember or know how to find again.

1. On Leopard, the ScreenSharing app is actually a very nice VNC client viewer, the way to use it as a VNC client is simple, while in Finder, just press "Cmd+K" to "Connect to Server" and you will be greeted by a simple window.

2. In this window type: vnc://yourpc'sipadress (ex. 10.0.1.***) (or whatever other string of crazy numbers you may have.

3. press connect and Screen Sharing app will be launched and you will be asked to put in the password you setup earlier, after that you should be connected! Just like you would be with any other Mac with Leopards built in screen sharing.

I have found Leopards screen sharing to be much better than any other VNC client, like Chicken of the VNC (which not only has a terrible, idiotic name, it also doesn't work worth a crap, and has not been updated forever.)

I may post some screen shots and other things in the future to improve this guide, but until then, let me know if there are any specific questions about any of this, I would be glad to help.

I use this for many different things, say I am working at my studio in school on a Maya project, and I need my PC at home to work on Rendering while I continue to work on my Mac at the studio, well I can do that very easily now, just send the Maya project to the PC (using FTP, or SFTP through SSH), open it up using my VNC client (Leopard), and remote controlling the PC top then open Maya, open that specific project, and tell it to get off its ass and start rendering some freaking frames! that way, when I go home later it may already be finished with the Render, which is ... well, it's ****ing awesome.

there are so many other uses for this it is just frightening, forgot a file at home? need a to send a file, etc. etc.

in the mean time, here are some links that everyone should be able to follow to go through many of these steps. Such as giving that IP address an actual domain name to utilize. which you can do with DynDNS:

http://lifehacker.com/software/web-...omain-name-to-your-home-web-server-124804.php

or setting up your own FTP and SSH servers:

http://lifehacker.com/339887/build-a-home-ftp-server-with-filezilla
(a quick tip, you can access your home FTP server the same way you access your vnc server, just Connect to Server, ftp://yourip, and the FTP serer will mount to your desktop like any other volume, which you can quicklook through, copy files from and to, very easily.

you can also use FTP Clients liek Transmit, or CyberDuck (i believe?) I have used Transmit, it works very well.

http://freesshd.com/index.php

also don't forget another great thing to learn, how to setup your own web server:

http://lifehacker.com/software/feature/how-to-set-up-a-personal-home-web-server-124212.php

I still need to add quite a bit to this guide to make it more clear, and I will definitely do that in the future.

oh! don't forget back to your Mac for FREE!

http://lifehacker.com/365673/get-back-to-your-mac-without-paying-for-it

 

Wow, good write up. I never thought to mention this.

We have to use remote desktop to connect to our tracking station at the top of the hill where our antennas are. On the hill is a computer running XP pro. I set up remote desktop and go the ip address, so now we can connect from anywhere. The funny thing is, that Microsofts remote desktop connection for OS X is easier to setup and use than RDC for windows.

 

ok now I actually have a question about this sort of stuff.

is it possible that the way my school network is setup could restrict me from being able to access my home server? etc.

many different attempts at the school have been unsuccessful.

 

Yes, it can.

A lotta school networks block/throttle/etc different ports that most people dont use. So yea, the typical user would only need 80(http) 21(ftp) and 113?(email).

So they might not let you use em. Which always sucks.

Another posibility is to try TightVNC(Windows server), the reason i say that is because it has a java http server. So you dont have to use a vnc client, and it might help if school networks are being stupid. (not 100%, but it helped in the past)

And its useful if youre at a pc/mac that doesnt have a vnc client, you can just login to the http site and control you pc.
http://www.tightvnc.com/

 

Yes. You'll need a VPN account that lets you log into your schools network from off campus. Contact your schools director of telecommunications for more information.

edit: whoops, I misread and thought you were trying to access a computer on campus from a computer off campus. Visa-versa shouldn't be a problem except for the port blocking which, again, can usually be remedied by contacting the director of telecom.

 

What boggles my mind is how much easier/faster it is to remote from OS X in comparison to RDC in Vista.