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Filed under: Tips •

Tip: Use iChat to McGyver Back to your Mac

I love the idea of Back to My Mac, including with a MobileMe account (there is also a Windows equivalent I haven’t tried). Unfortunately, I have never gotten the green light on both ends of an attempt to link one Mac back to another.

Networking two computers together hasn’t been a big deal for 20 years or so, but taking control of a machine which is part of some network somewhere remote is, you have to admit, a formidable request. The ability to do this was a major reason I re-upped for a MobileMe account, so imagine my disappointment when I could not get that indicator in System Preferences to turn green.

While MobileMe continues to get its act together, there is an alternative. It’s hacky, it crashes, there’s no way to enable it if it’s not already set up when you leave the remote location - but boy, is it ever a sweet option when it works.

The key is iChat and Applescript - and 2 IM accounts. By logging in on the workstation and installing the script, you can make that machine auto-accept requests to share a screen under the Buddies menu. The script makes it so that only your account can successfully make the request.

I find it works about 75-80% of the time; the key is not to let iChat crash on the remote system, and I find I’m getting better at neatly closing the session so I can reopen it later. I have even made iChat a Startup Item so that I don’t forget to have it running when I leave. If I really want to sneak in unnoticed, I use the relatively new “Invisible” status on iChat.

Now let’s give credit where credit is due with this link to the original article detailing how to actually do this.

Thanks to Matt Notaro at Kontent Films for this great pick.

And Mel Matsouka let me know that Read Pixel makes products specifically to do machine control from another Mac or an iPhone: RemoteTap and SpyMe. I tried these and have the same difficulty as with Back to my Mac getting them to work from a separate network.

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If you have a fixed IP address you can also very easily access a remote computer with the “screen sharing” application in OSX.
here’s a little trick, find the hidden app in:
Macintosh-HD\System\Library\CoreServices\Screen Sharing.app
drag it to your dock to make it easily accessible, launch it, enter the IP address of the remote machine and voila,
hope this helps.
e.

Posted by eric Peltier  on  04/08  at  04:12 PM

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I use logmein.com and ichat in combination. Once connected with logmein, I initiate an iChat between both machines. That way I have a direct connection for file transfers (in both directions) as well as remote machine control. Plus I can easily talk with the remote operator if required.

Posted by Rob Birnholz  on  04/09  at  05:32 PM

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