There will undoubtedly be times when you are away from your Mac but need to access a file or two on it. While the advent of services like iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.com, OneDrive, and MediaFire have made accessing your files easier, most of them require you to organize your files in specific synchronized folders on your Mac. They also have the drawback of storing your files on third-party servers, which might not be the most desirable place for personal or sensitive information. If you would like to remotely access files that are stored on your Mac, there are several ways to do it.
Apple Remote Desktop is used to remotely manage Mac computers in a commercial or business environment. Screen sharing and Remote Desktop Connect your Mac to routers, switches, firewalls, IoT devices and much more with ease. Built for Mac - Built from scratch just for the Mac, Serial is.
But before doing so you will need a way to access your Mac from wherever you are on the Internet. There are a number of “dynamic DNS” services that can do this, but perhaps the most convenient (and arguably best) option is to use Apple’s Back to My Mac service. Setting up Back to My Mac Configuring Back to My Mac isn’t difficult. Just follow these steps:. Create an Apple ID if you don’t have one.
Log into iCloud in the iCloud system preferences. Enable the “Back to My Mac” service. You'll find the option for enabling Back to My Mac within the iCloud system preference.
At this point, any Mac you have similarly configured with iCloud should be able to access the one you set up with Back to My Mac. Keep in mind that Back to My Mac requires that the remote Mac be connected to the Internet. Also, it should be configured to wake on demand so that when it’s asleep, it can act on a Back to My Mac request. To help ensure that this happens, launch System Preferences, choose the Energy Saver preference, and enable the Wake for Network Access option. Another issue you might run into is if your network has a firewall configured that prevents Back to My Mac access. If you can set up Back to My Mac but cannot seem to connect from a remote location, you might need to check your router's settings to ensure UPnP, or NAT-PMP services are enabled.
In addition, check or reset your router's firewall (toggle it off, and test the connection), and also update your router's firmware to its latest version. It’s a good idea to test such a connection from a local coffee shop before needing to use Back to My Mac for mission critical work. When Back to My Mac is set up, you have several options for connecting to your remote Mac—opening programs and files directly on it, copying files to and from it, and controlling it remotely from the command line. Here’s how they shake out. Share another Mac’s screen The most intuitive way to access and manage your remote Mac is Screen Sharing, which streams the desktop view from your remote computer to the Mac you’re currently using.
While the performance of this service depends on the speed of your broadband connection, you can use this to work as if you were sitting in front of your Mac. To enable Screen Sharing, go to the Sharing system preferences, enable the Screen Sharing service, and ensure that your user account is allowed access. By default only administrators are given access, but you can add specific users to the list or select the option to allow all users. When done, you can select your Mac in the Finder sidebar of another Mac configured with the same iCloud account and then click the option to share the remote Mac’s screen and open applications and documents on it. Enable Screen Sharing or File Sharing on your remote Mac and access it from another Mac's Finder window sidebar.
Screen Sharing supports additional options such as synchronized clipboards and drag-and-drop support for file sharing. With these, you can drag files from the Finder in your current Mac to the screen sharing window to copy them to the remote computer. You can similarly copy files from your remote Mac. To use the shared clipboard option (enabled by selecting “User Shared Clipboard” in the Edit menu), copy any selected text or images on either Mac and the data will stream to the clipboard of the other.
Then you can paste it by pressing Command-V. Since OS X supports multiple user accounts, you may connect to your remote Mac when another user is logged on. In these instances, Screen Sharing supports multiple sharing sessions.
In this scenario you are given the choice to either log into your account behind the scenes or view what the current user is seeing (with his or her permission). Note that for either approach, anyone sitting at your computer will see an indication in the status menus that you are logged on. Messages allows you to share a friend's screen. Finally, while Screen Sharing can be set up for your personal Macs, this service is not limited to your own computers and can be used to connect to any others on a local network with Screen Sharing enabled. Additionally you can request screen sharing access to a friend’s Mac via Messages. (Yosemite now allows you to do this between two people with iCloud accounts.
Under Mavericks you could do this only via a third-party service such as AIM, Jabber, and Google Talk.) When chatting with a friend or colleague using Messages, you can click the Details button at the top of the conversation, where you will see options for communicating with your contact. One of these is a pair of overlapping rectangles, which, if available, will allow you to view the screen of your contact. File sharing If you wish to only access your remote Mac’s files and not deal with a potentially slow Screen Sharing experience you can do so by accessing your Mac’s files directly. Provided you have enabled the File Sharing service in the Sharing system preferences on your remote Mac, when you select that remote Mac in a Finder window’s sidebar on your current Mac, you will see the various default and custom shared folders appear, which you can mount and then navigate through to access the files you desire. Remote Login Another approach to managing your Mac remotely is arguably for power users, where you enable the Remote Login service and use the secure shell (SSH) in a Terminal window to login and run commands and scripts on your Mac. Dive into Terminal to access a Mac with Remote Login enabled.
Remote Macs with Screen Sharing and File Sharing enabled will appear in the Finder sidebar. If you enable only Remote Login, the remote Mac won’t appear. But you can access it via the Terminal app. To do this, launch Terminal (/Applications/Utilities), and then press Shift-Command-K (or select New Remote Connection from the Shell menu).
This produces a New Remote Connection window. Within this window select the Secure Shell service and you should see any enabled Macs in the Server column. From here you can select and connect to these Macs to log into them. Other services The services I mentioned so far are automatically detectable; however, there may be additional services that you have on your Mac that are not detectable in these ways.
These can include custom FTP software, web servers, license managers, or other server software you have configured. If you have such software enabled, you can still connect to it using Back to My Mac by assembling a URL that points you to your Mac from anywhere on the Internet. To do this, enter the following command in Terminal to list a hierarchy of domains for your iCloud account: dns-sd -E When entered, you will see an output similar to the following (the NUMBER will be a unique ID for your iCloud account): local icloud.com - btmm - members - NUMBER With this information, you can assemble the URL for directly accessing your remote Mac, provided you have the computer name for it (your Mac’s computer name is the name entered at the top of the Sharing system preferences). For these purposes, we are going to use the Bonjour name, which uses only lowercase letters, strips out all punctuation, and replaces spaces with dashes. So, for example, if I have “Topher’s MacBook Pro” as my computer name, then the bonjour name will be “tophers-macbook-pro” (we are leaving out the.local suffix here).
With this, the URL scheme for accessing the remote Mac is the following: computer-name.NUMBER.members.btmm.icloud.com In this context, if my account number is “12345678,” to access my MacBook Pro I would use the following: tophers-macbook-pro.12345678.members.btmm.icloud.com I can now specify this for various connectivity services that are not supported directly in the Finder—such as SSH and SFTP—and even third-party servers and services I have configured on the system. For example, if I have the OS X CUPS web interface enabled on a remote Mac, I can connect to it to configure my printers by specifying port 631 in a URL similar to the following: This Back to My Mac address is quite versatile and can be used for more than just accessing one Mac from another.
If you have any system, be it an iOS device or Android phone; a Windows PC or Linux system that support SMB file sharing, SSH connections, Web connections, and others; then you can use this Back to My Mac address on these systems to point them to any of your configured Macs. As a final note, while sharing services have their conveniences, unless you use them regularly you might consider keeping them disabled. While there are no known hacks for these services, and they are built off of reputable and secure coding, best practices are to keep services off that you don’t intend to use.
Remote access software refers to software which allows you to control your computer remotely. So, it’s the best solution in case you left your important files at home and it’s very urgent to get them otherwise your boss going to take you out of the office. When you are not at home or your family member don’t know how to work with it. In that situation, a remote access software is very useful. Technology has made such software that help in this situation. You can access your Windows PC or Mac Computers while you are outside either in the office or somewhere else. To remotely access your computer you have to install a software first on the computer you want to connect known as the host.
Another thing you have to do is to install the software on another computer which you will connect to known as the client. There are many remote accessing Softwares but they can be heavy on your wallet. So, here are the Top 10 Remote Access Software for Mac Computers. TeamViewer is one of the best remote access software. It is free for personal usage.
Most of you might be familiar with it. It’s very easy to install TeamViewer and you don’t need to do any changes in the firewall configurations or router settings.
With the help of TeamViewer, you can not only access a remote computer but can also transfer files. This remote access software also supports text chats, voice or video calls. With the feature support wake-on-LAN, you can connect to your computer remotely automatically in. There are many features of TeamViewer including sharing the application window with a person on the other hand and you can also print the files remotely. It is supported by Windows 10, 8, 7, vista, Linux, Chrome and Mac. Ultra VNC is among one of the remote access software which is very much popular.
Here a server and viewer are installed on two different computers, and the viewer controls the server. On the Host side, when Ultra VNC is installed on a computer it will ask whether you want this computer to be the Server, Viewer or both of them. You have to install the Server on the one that you want to remotely access. When it’s installed as a system service it always runs in the background. So, it allows you to connect to the client at any time. The other side is Client side.
When you want to establish a connection with the Ultra VNC Server you have to install the Viewer portion this side. When you are done with the router’s port configuration, you can access the Server from anywhere with an internet connection. The only thing you have to know is the IP address to establish the connection. Ultra VNC offers text chat, boot and connects to the server safely, clipboard sharing, file transfer, etc. Remote PC is a simple-to-use remote access software that allows only one connection.
If you want only this then it’s fine for you. On the Host side, you just have to download and install the software as per the instructions. It is supporting both Windows and Mac computers. Then you have to share the Access ID and Key to make the computer accessible. Another thing you can do is log into the host computer and add computer so that can be easily accessed later on. On the Client side, you have two options to remotely access the host computer.
First, by installing a RemotePC program on the computer and then enter the Access ID and Key to establish a connection with the host. Another method is to use client’s perspective RemotePC which is allowed through iOS or Android app. Then you can transfer files from remote Mac computer and can access multiple devices.
Please keep in mind that both the host and the client should have the same operating system otherwise they won’t be compatible. Seecreen seems very tiny but don’t you undermine its power. It’s very effective in remotely accessing your computer whenever it is demanded at an instant. On the Host side, open it on the computer that is to be controlled. Then create your account and log in, another user can be added by email id or username. Add the client to the Unattended list and they can remotely access your computer. It’s your choice to add the contact list but you can share the ID and password for further instant access.
On the Client side, to connect with the host you have to enter the host ID and password. Finally when the connection is completed then you can easily transfer data, share screen, perform voice call and you can also record the current session.
The software must be started at the client side to can share the screen. Chrome Remote Desktop is just an extended version of the very famous Google Chrome web browser which enables you to remotely access the computer from some other Chrome browser. On the Host side, first, you have to install this extension for Google Chrome.
Then for the authentication purpose, you have to create a PIN to remotely access the computer. Make sure that you have logged into your Google account to do this. On the Client side, sign in to another Google Chrome browser. The PIN and extension would be same. After logging in you can see the remote computer and access it.
Simple copy paste is used in this for sharing with no more deep enhanced setting. AnyDesk is a very simple to operate remote access software that you can install and run easily.
On the Host side, launch AnyDesk on the computer you wish to connect to then you have to save the AnyDesk-Address that you can also set manually. At the connection establishment stage with the client, the host is asked their choice. You can select from allowing or not be allowing, clipboard usage, sound control, block the host. On the client side, you have to run the AnyDesk with the AnyDesk-Address of the host in Remote Desk option. If you have set the access to unattended then the client can connect without the acceptance from the host every time the connection is established.
Along with the transfer of data, can take of the remote computer, sync the clipboard, balance the speed of established connection and the quality, use the of the, and finally you can enter into full-screen mode. Join.me The producer of LogMeln has introduced remote access software to access another computer using an internet browser. On the Host side, you can download and run join.me to remotely access your device. When you choose start button, a selection application or the entire computer can be remotely viewed. On the Client side, within the Join section, install join.me. You just need the personal code of this tool. It offers conference option, multiple monitors, full-screen mode, and up to 10 people can connect to view a screen at a time.
Beam Your Screen is another portable and freely available remote access software for your computer. Here an ID number is used by the viewer to remotely access the Mac computer.
On the Host side, it is known as the organizer. So, on the host computer, it uses Beam Your Screen for Organizers when connected to the other end. Nothing else is required to install except this and you can start sharing information. On the Client side, the version is known as the Beam Your Screen for Participants. It is very simple and fast to execute the files. To join the host, under the Session ID enter the host’s session number to start a connection.
Then you are ready to start sharing the screen, clipboard text, and text files and other stuff. Another interesting thing about this tool is that you can see the online host without installing the software and multiple users can share the ID to join in common.
Splashtop is freely available for personal usage. You can remotly access up to five computers with its free version. Its feature of streaming and let you access them remotely on your tablet or Mac computers from the desktop.
So, it’s a better option for you guys to remotely access your computer. It’s free for a week and then it costs 2$ per month that provides sufficient ability to access the computer remotely. For the connection establishment, it doesn’t require many efforts.
On the Host side, just install the software and create the required login credentials. On the Client side, install the same version of the software and then enter the required credentials. That’s all you have to do. LogMeln is handy to use by the users and efficient way to connect with others through the remote access software.
You just have to download the client software and then create your account. When you want to log in through the browser or the web page you just sign in and enter the host ID and start connection. LogMeln enables you to access the active processes, hard drive information, transfer data from the host to remote client. It also allows you to have video calling with the host side.