Remote access - ssh VNC etc - help needed please

You would want to first establish a secure connection over SSH, then you can use macOS ARD built into the Finder to connect to the VNC connection. Establishing the SSH connection so that VNC will work is the tricky part as you need to use the proper ports. You will need to know which port is being used for the VNC video connection on the VPS. Once you know that you can use the following template to create a secure SSH tunnel to the VPS using the command line in the Terminal app:

ssh  -C  -N  -L  5944:localhost:<vps-port>   <vps-user>@<vps-ip-dnsname>

Replace "<vps-port>" with the display port used for the VNC server on the VPS.

Replace "<vps-user>" with a valid user account on the vps.

Replace "<vps-ip-dnsname>" with the IP address or DNS name of the vps you want to connect to.

The "5944" port can actually be any unused port number. Most instructions and examples online have it as "5901" which can get confusing when trying to understand how the whole thing works especially when the VNC video port is 5901. I just like to keep them different so I have a bit of a chance of remembering how this command works.

Once you establish the secure connection, just click on "Go" in the Finder and select "Connect to Server ..." and type:

vnc://<vps-ip-dnsname>:<vps-port>

Where you again replace the items in angle brackets with the correct information described earlier. Then you should be able to enter your password(s). You may need to first provide the VNC password before you provide the VPS user account password depending on how the VPS is configured.

Hey there tentoseven,

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. We understand you’d like to know how to access another computer remotely from your Mac. We’ll be happy to help with this.

If you have a Mac mini that you can use, you should be able to follow the exact steps in this link to set up the remote access:

Allow a remote computer to access your Mac

We hope this helps. 

Take care. 

tentoseven wrote:

This was a great response, thank you.

However I am not 100% clear, but I have made progress..

I have learned a fair bit (feels like it anyway!) in past few days. I have secured the VPS by closing all ports except the new one I opened for ssh (I closed the default 22), plus 80 and 443 for browser. That's all for now while I keep learning :)

I am not very knowledgeable about the details either. I tried to post in a manner that would give you the best chance of understanding the different ports since most instructions use the same numbers which make it hard to figure out what is happening.

However, I am yet to get to a GUI. Was the advice you gave relevant to getting to GUI? I have installed XFCE DE, not got to it yet, still in terminal!!

Do I need a VNC "program", like VNC Viewer to go with your instructions?

I am not familiar with VPS. If it is a Linux distribution and it is using XFCE, then you need to make sure that you have a VNC server installed and that the VNC server is running. IIRC, you also need to configure XFCE. Here is a simple instructions for installing, configuring, and starting a VNC Server for XFCE:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-configure-vnc-on-ubuntu-20-04

There are some Linux solutions that provide a GUI interface such as Remmina:

https://www.ubuntupit.com/fast-and-secure-remote-desktop-clients-for-linux/

I found an app called X2GO which looks promising, but if you're saying Mac has something built in already which can open the GUI on the target VPS machine, that's awesome and I will definitely give that a whirl! thanks again

There are multiple methods of accessing a remote system especially over the Internet. Some are open source and others are paid proprietary options. NoMachine is one option (I is proprietary, but I believe their is an open source app using their protocol), LogMeIn, TeamViewer, etc.

Don't be stuck, use iCloud.