Back To My Mac: control your Apple Mac OS X Leopard over the Internet
Filed under: Computers, Software | By: Daniel
Posted on: May 10, 2008 | 3 Comments
Working from home means that I have never really needed to have control of my home Apple Mac when traveling, but this has started to change of late with a few occasions happening that included the fact that I needed a file from home when I was away. This problem can now be solved with “Back To My Mac”, this software lets you control your Apple Mac OS X Leopard over the Internet, and this is ideal if you need anything from your main Mac. You just connect via .Mac; it will find your Apple Mac computer and then display it in the Leopard Finder.
Some people might feel this is a security risk, but Apple have said that the information will be for your eyes only, they said the software “uses advanced authentication and data encryption technologies to help prevent unauthorized access to your data and protect it”. Using Back to my Mac, you can browse your entire hard drive and simply drag and drop the file to your local Mac. If you want to control your remote Mac just like you are sitting next to it, then you can use the Screen Sharing feature and, move folders, launch applications, save and edit documents from anywhere in the world.
All you need to use Back to my Mac is two or more Mac OS X 10.5.1 Leopard-based Mac computers that are configured for use with the same .Mac account, and an AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme or third-party router. Be aware that the 3rd party router has to be compatible with UPnP or NAT-PMP.
Watch Back to my Mac in action, view demo video.
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Excellent! This one feature alone is worth the price of admission to .Mac. A similar feature for PCs costs $180.
There is a much better solution to this and it’s also free and cross platform. It’s provided by LogMeIn.com. Instead of configuring your router and depend on Leopard you install a small listener service on all Mac’s and PC’s you want to remote control. You can then from any browser anywhere go to logmein.com. Login to your account and take control of any of the computers you configured for your account. Performance is extremely good. I remote control my mothers laptop in Sweden from California and she is on a very slow DSL (225 KBit). It’s like sitting infront of here computer in her kitchen. We also usually have a Skype session going on the same connection.
Pretty sure that Back to my Mac uses the VNC protocol and it’s not anywhere near as efficient as this is. Logmein;s solution also works with zero configuration anywhere my mother choses to bring her laptop. As long as she has internet access I can see it and take control. Firewalls is not a problem since this is a secure encrypted tunnel over http.
/Mikael
Just wanted to add that it’s not “also free” since .Mac is not free. Logmein.com is free.
/Mikael