Make ARD work with dynamic IP/iCloud

Question

Make ARD work with dynamic IP/iCloud

If you're interested in using ARD with remote mobile clients (via a dynamic DNS service) run the following in your terminal...

defaults write com.apple.RemoteDesktop DisableReverseIPLookup -bool yes

after that, go to File > Add by Address.. and enter the domain for a computer you want to manage...

Likewise, if you're using iCloud (MobileMe/Mac.com) you can use BTMM domains. Just run the following command on each client you wish to administer...

echo show Setup:/Network/BackToMyMac | scutil | sed -n 's/.* : *\(.*\).$/\1/p'

Which should return an address in the form of #######.members.btmm.icloud.com. Just prepend the computer name and use File > Add by Address... again...

Posted on Jul 16, 2013 1:11 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 26, 2013 10:42 AM in response to Brian S. Campbell

FYI, it seems that ARD 3.7 breaks this solution. The local (router assigned) IPs are now showing up instead. I'm looking into it, but if anyone has suggestions I'd love to hear them!

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Answer 2

Neyüm

Level 1

87 points

Nov 7, 2013 1:59 AM in response to Brian S. Campbell

I seem to have got this to work by going to the Get Info for the computer in question, clicking the Edit button then replacing the Address field (which should be the local IP of the computer) with the contents of the DNS Name field. This will replace it with text that looks a bit like "f323:3ifjfj:23dfj:3423" and so on. But it should then connect and work. I haven't tried this with the DynDNS option, only the iCloud option.

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Answer 3

Nov 7, 2013 12:42 PM in response to Neyüm

Thanks for the reply Neyüm, but i'm not having any luck with approach. It's updates the IPv6 IP address as you mention, but even though the computer is online it's showing as offline for me

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Answer 4

Nov 22, 2013 12:25 PM in response to Brian S. Campbell

Have you been able to sort this out. I am trying to do the same thing and running into problems. Most connections I can work around with dyndns for routers that support it but I have a few that don't.

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Answer 5

Nov 22, 2013 12:28 PM in response to 05slvrscape

I haven't been able to get this working again reliably. I think an update is comming for ARD. My fingers are crossed that it will help. Ever since the Mavericks update ARD and BTMM screen sharing have been completely unreliable...

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