I am looking for a remote desktop solution to support our remote office(s) Mac systems. Apple Remote Desktop is not an option. All versions of VNC that we have tried will not work with Mac Lion. Bomgar has been ruled out because of finances.
Anybody have other suggestions?
MacBook Pro
Normally I would suggest TeamViewer.com, but you are talking a commercial situation which should be paid for, and you mentioned financial issues.
I do not understand the VNC not working, as I've used Screen Sharing (just Apple wrapped VNC) both to and from Lion to other Macs.
Can you please describe the configuration information
What VNC clients? (Mac OS X Screen Sharing, Chicken (or Chicken of the VNC), JollysFastVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC, RealVNC, other...)
What VNC server? (Screen Sharing, Remote Desktop, Vine Server, other...)
What computer is trying to connect to the remote offices? Is it a Mac or other
What operating system version (is this the Lion system?)
What is the office Mac? Is that the Lion system?
What do you have as a router at work?
Can you configure your work router to allow VNC ports 5900, 5901, 5902, ... through your router and vector the different port numbers to specific Office Macs? <http://portforward.com>
Have you tried Mac OS X Screen Sharing? On the Office Mac you enable System Preferences -> Sharing -> Screen Sharing (optionally, you can enable a VNC password for non-Mac clients). On the Mac client, you use Finder -> Go -> Connect to server -> vnc://address.of.office.router:5903 which would connect to port 5903 on the office router which you would have previously port forwarded to a specific office Mac.
If you are in the office, then you should see the Mac via bonjour in your Finder side-bar or via Finder -> Go -> Connector to server -> Browser
Anyway
No-IP.com or DynDNS.org can provide a dynamic DNS name to make finding your office router easier.
Thank you for your reply. I have answered each of your issues or questions below.
> It starting to look like a commercial, fee-based solution is going to be the answer. At this point, I need to find all possible answers and any costs to
them, and present it to the boss.
> I should have stated this up front. I am looking for VNC to work from a Windows 7 (or XP) running VNC to connect to Mac Lion laptops. When I connect
to a Mac Lion with Remote Management, Remote Login, etc. configured, I just get a gray patch-work type pattern desktop top. It is a know issue that
exists with the multi-user Mac Lion environment introduces.
> The Remote Management is configured with the checkbox that says to allow VNC to connect to the Mac with a password. I am using a Windows 7
system with Real VNC (latest version that RealVNC claims is Lion compatible). However, I can not get past the gray-patch desktop.
> It is Macbook Pro and Macbook Pro Air clients. Some are still running Snow Leopard, but they are all getting migrated to Lion. I have Windows 7
systems running RealVNC in the hands of other IT tech staff (such as me) that need to connect to the Mac laptops to support them.
> The Remote Login, Remote Management and Remote Apple Events are set on the Mac clients with the VNC password set.
> Windows 7 systems in the remote offices are trying to support Mac laptops scattered across the United States.
> The operating system, or will eventually be, Mac Lion.
> As for routers, we have Cisco equipment (ASA firewwalls and Cisco routers).
>The port configuration is not the problem on the routers. The Windows systems can VNC other Windows systems in those remote offices. However, they
get the gray-patch background when they attempt to connect to the Mac systems.
> I have tried the Remote Management and Screen Sharing. No difference.
> As for your suggestion using Finder / Browse function, it does not apply since this is Windows 7 systems trying to remote desktop control a
Mac system.
Thanks for the help!
The Mac OS X Screen Sharing (aka VNC) servers and client play best with other Macs, and have been known to not work very will with 3rd party VNC clients and servers (JollysFastVNC client being an exception).
The "Vine Server" (formally OSXvnc) has worked very well with other 3rd party VNC clients including from Windows. <http://www.testplant.com/products/vine/vine-server/>.
If you are going to try Vine Server, either give your Vine Server a port besides 5900, or make sure you are NOT also running Mac OS X Screen Sharing NOR Remote Management, as that is going to casue a conflict on port 5900.
Generally, when for personal use, I point towards TeamViewer.com as it is the easiest to setup and get working (again since it is also free for personal use, and most of the people just want to control their own system or their parent's).
However, if you are going commercial, then you might want to evaluate GoToMyPC (or one of the other support apps from that family), or LogMeIn.com which works very will when the client is run inside of Internet Explorer. I have not really used these solutions, except experimentally, so if you are going to pay money, you should give them a try. TeamViewer.com and LogMeIn.com can be easily experimented with. GoToMyPC can get a 30 day trial.
And finally, there are other remote support solutions available, I'm just aware of them.
Oh yea. If the Vine Server works for you, you might also look at the for pay Vine client. After all if Vine Server works, and your company is willing to pay something, then maybe a little compensation to the Vine authors might be nice.
Oh yea, for Lion, you need the beta version of Vine Server
<http://www.testplant.com/support/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.ph p?id=53>
If you are looking for something like Bomgar there is ScreenConnect. You can host internally on your Windows 7 (or XP server) and connect in with your Mac's running Lion. It is the only thing I know that is self-hosted other than Bomgar.
Shameless self-promotion: http://ralite.ozmonet.com/
The Helpless: Runs ralite, enters your IP address.
The Helper: Forward a port on your OWN router, run VNC in listening mode.
I appreciate the Vine server suggestion. As it is, I am having to find a solution that works with the Windows 7 Systems supporting the Mac clients only. No Mac servers or Apple Remote Desktop are in play here.
I will check out ScreenConnect. Thank you for the suggestions.
If the Macs are clients trying to see the Window's screens, then use Windows RDC and the Mac client options are Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Mac OS X Client (free)
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/remote-desktop/default.mspx >
and CoRD (Microsoft RDC Screen Sharing)
DilbertW01 wrote:
> The Remote Management is configured with the checkbox that says to allow VNC to connect to the Mac with a password. I am using a Windows 7
system with Real VNC (latest version that RealVNC claims is Lion compatible). However, I can not get past the gray-patch desktop.
Only the enterprise version of RealVNC supports Lion. If that isn't working for you, I suggest you contact RealVNC. There are many possible VNC options to choose from. I suspect many other VNC clients support Lion with the right settings.
> It is Macbook Pro and Macbook Pro Air clients. Some are still running Snow Leopard, but they are all getting migrated to Lion. I have Windows 7
systems running RealVNC in the hands of other IT tech staff (such as me) that need to connect to the Mac laptops to support them.
Have you considered getting Macs for your IT tech staff? Then they can support both Macs and Windows machines since Macs can do both.
What about Citrix? VNC really has only one thing going for it - free of charge. I know of no commercially supported remote access tool that isn't better than VNC.
I just posted this.....
We ended up going with ScreenConnect. It was considerably less expensive than Bomgar and has many of the same features. It is a little twitchy with the Macs, but so is everything else (even Bomgar will admin to having 'issues' with Macs. However, it is fulfilling our needsw.
Note - if the Mac has FileVault turned on with the disk encrypted, the Unattended Agent will not work with the Macs. Then again, Bomgar confirmed with me that they have the same issue. It has to do with the OS not being fully operational at that point, so nothing will work until the Mac is actually logged into by one of the users defined in FileVault. Not being totally Mac-literate, I hope that I have correct with relaying this information.
Thank you to he / she who suggested ScreenConect. It was a great solution!
Can somebody recommend a remote desktop support solution?
