My brother lives 50 miles from me, does not understand basic computer terminology, and calls often for help that has to wait until I can drive there. I need to access his laptop (Macbook running Big Sur) from my iMac (desktop running Catalina) and be able to control his cursor from my mouse, and enter things from my keyboard when his Macbook requires it. I'm on Verzon Fios wi fi network. He's on Optum wi fi.
Get the remote Mac set up for screen sharing via Messages, and use that.
Share screens using Messages on Mac - Apple Support
There are other ways to do this, and each with various degrees of difficulty or cost or external support.
Ensure the remote user’s account involved is a Standard account in general, and not an Admin account. That tends to isolate and contain the damage that can arise.
Get the remote Mac set up for screen sharing via Messages, and use that.
Share screens using Messages on Mac - Apple Support
There are other ways to do this, and each with various degrees of difficulty or cost or external support.
Ensure the remote user’s account involved is a Standard account in general, and not an Admin account. That tends to isolate and contain the damage that can arise.
Thank you for your quick response. It's simple and works.
I found another url that was helpful with a slightly different procedure: https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/share-screen-iphone-ipad-3654642/
Screen sharing works just fine locally, but won’t work so well remotely without a path through the remote firewall.
A path into the remote network is certainly possible either directly (with port forwarding) or via VPN (with a VPN server on the remote firewall or port forwarding to a VPN server on the remote network.
Opening the path can also allow other folks on the network similar access into the target network, without some thought to access control. This is part of why a VPN can be useful.
That remote access can also mean setting up a dynamic DNS translation for the address of the firewall on the remote network, as that IP address can be dynamic; can change. The dynamic translation allows you a way to find the remote IP address without remote help.
Details here vary by the remote firewall abilities, and potentially a few other details.
Messages, and commercial remote-access solutions (including Messages) make this setup much easier, as can a mid-grade remote-access-capable remote firewall.
(There’s a reason I didn’t suggest this as the first option…)
Remote troubleshooting a laptop 50 miles from me on another network
