Mountain Lion - Screen share over WIFI

Yes, the client has to be on a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi SSID, the server can still be on 5GHz. Most wi-fi routers today come with both turned on, sometimes using the same SSID. It would be wise to get into the router's admin web page and name them differently so you know which one is which. Yes Apple should fix this now that we've isolated the bug a little bit and have a workaround for it.

I have been going out of my mind trying to resolve this issue since ML was released and have tried everything and anything I could find in the forums. I have the same wireless router as the OP that I've configured to broadcasts separate SSIDs for 2.4 and 5 GHz. My mobile devices and gaming consoles are set to auto-connect to 2.4GHz and both my MacBook Pro and iMac are set to auto-connect to the 5GHz. I've been troubleshooting this problem (again!) for the last 2 hours until I came across your post. I tested it by opening a Remote Desktop session from my MBP to iMac and it was as slow as ever. Once I switched the MBP over to the 2.4GHz band the session response time became immediate. Thanks ndoc, I can use ARD on my WLAN again!

This is not just a screen sharing problem - on a new Mac Mini with 10.8.2, automated tests with Selenium2/Webdriver take around four times as long to run once the monitor is disconnected, even with sharing completely disabled.

There must be an active display or HDMI cable plugged in to Mac Mini for Screen Sharing to work properly.

That wouldn't fix the problem. It's all related to the client being on 5GHz channel. Once you switch to a 2.4GHz channel problem goes away. Apparently Screen Sharing is not the only app that's affected as you can read from previous posts.

Negative Ghostrider. I happen to be on 5gHz and I have no problems, unless I disconnect my HDMI cable from the Mini. One should use Adaptive Quality under the view menu on the Screen Sharing client for optimal performance.

My Mac Mini alwyas has an HDMI cable plugged in though. Maybe we're talking about different generations of the Mini. In any case I think something is screwed up and our friends at Apple should investigate this. This thread is too long, don't you think?

Cheers!

ndoc wrote:

My Mac Mini alwyas has an HDMI cable plugged in though. Maybe we're talking about different generations of the Mini. In any case I think something is screwed up and our friends at Apple should investigate this. This thread is too long, don't you think?

Cheers!

Could be. My Mac Mini is a mid 2011, and my wifi router is a brand new Time Capsule I just bought yesterday at Best Bouillabaisse. Maybe your monitor/tv needs to be energized (plugged in) or in standby mode. It's definately related to the display connection - in my opinion.

Cheers back to you (drinking a Smithwick's presently). Threads can never be too long 🙂

My Mini is Mid 2010, so a year older than yours.

Another difference is the base station. Yours is a AirportExtreme basically (ok with added storage aka Time Capsule), but mine is a Linksys. That's probably why I'm seeing a different behavior than you.

OK - replying to ndoc - pluses and minuses.

I've had problems with shared screen between my MacBook Air (mid 2011 OSX 10.8.2) connecting to my Mac Mini (late 2009 OSX Lion 10.7.5 Server).

Issues have always existed since purchase (previous portable was Mac Book White c. mid 2010 which demonstrated similar issues at all times).

The Mac Min is totally headless, locked in a cupboard as my server.

Both are fully patch per Apple updates.

MBA obiously is wireless only.

WiFi is provided by Apple Aiirport extrme (version 7.6.1).

MBA connects,normally, to a 5GHz band

Mac Mini wired Ethernet to AirPort Extreme.

The screen on the Mac Mini is blocky, slow to refresh, has "shadows" where window right and lower edge (for those DOS useres, rememebr the block character used to put a shadow arouns a "window" or diaglofue box? its like that)

Moving a window - if a refesh occurs sufficient across the shared screen to allow draggin does not refresh as the window moves.

Shifting MBA to use the non 5GHz WiFi access has improved matters by a significant level.

However, when I take the MBA elsewhere, and connect to a 2.4GHz hand WiFi - it is a s bad as ever. The connections tests as 20MBps (NOT 20Mbps)

Broadband to the house is max 7Mbps, and it's a Giga bit wireless network throughout.

Of course, moving to the 2.4GHz band also lowers my connection trhougput across my internal network impacting file copies... which I do a lot of.

Trade off as always, but would be very nice if Apple resolved this issue.

2ey35 wrote:

Broadband to the house is max 7Mbps, and it's a Giga bit wireless network throughout.

FYI

Wireless connections are not Gigabit.

2.4G and 5G connections run at the same speeds

Hello

Switching to 2.4Ghz versus 5Gh may or may not be quicker.... I am so sure.

My issues are different: I am running some applications that would not run correctly when a physical screen is not connected to my mac mini so an headless mac mini in my case is not very useful !

There are some tricks to simulate a physical screen connected but after that you cannot really have a real physical screen connected. My TV is connected to my mini mac 2012 ML though HDMI and when the TV monitor is on, Share Screen is quick and the applicatons do not bug ! Once TV is switched off and in System Preferences menu/displays you have no screen attached (so you are purely headless) then my applications start to bug.

The application I am talking about are Music Player running with Itunes11.

on another forum one guy wrote

"It seems that when you don't have a monitor connected, the GPU doesn't give you full performance. You can hack a dongle to make the mini think you have a monitor connected." this is not the best solution...

Anyway after more than 6 months of Moutain Lion this bug of the screen connected or not should be known by Apple. How come it is not getting fixed ?

Thanks

philoouu

Nice, hit raw nerve did I Mr Cook?

Well they just removed my post, so they must be reading this stuff, they obviously know about this issue and they werent happy that I mention certain things in my post.

Hopefully they come with a fix sometimes soon...

Would you know other softwares (not using VNC protocol) where it would not happen ? Unless this is really an issue that cannot be avoided. I have very low knowledge in this area...

Thanks

philoouu

Well that's what was in my post, I was pointing out the differences between there software and "other software" (the name of which I probably cant say) unfortunately if you want to improve your remote sessions with your server you wont be using anything VNC based to do it, not until there is some vast improvment's, best to look at what the dark side of computers are using (you know the evil dark, "other" side of computers)

Sorry for my ambiguity