Does anyone know of a similar product to Citrix Server that'll run on the Mac OS?
Essentially, I'm looking to allow multiple remote users to log in to the same OSX Server at the same time (with full visual desktop, not SSH).
OS X's Quartz window server has no remoting abilities, unlike its predecessor. X11 does, but 'native' OS X applications don't use that; of the few Mac apps typically run in X11 (such as GIMP or CrossOver), none are specific to the Mac, so you might as well run them on a different OS.
That said, if all you want is to visually remote-control a session, it is possible to use VNC or a derivative, such as Apple Remote Desktop. Since 10.4, this allows for multiple simultaneous sessions, as implemented with Vine Server. Remote Desktop also has other abilities such as remotely installing and updating software.
(Unlike Citrix and X11, VNC does not send drawing commands over the network; it instead transmits a compressed image representation pixel-per-pixel.)
You should specify your exact needs. You will not get a Citrix-like experience where you can run single Mac apps in their own remote session. You will, however, get remote graphical control, and that may be more than enough for you.
I've never heard of it, but from their blog:
Aqua Connect Terminal Server uses the VNC (Virtual Network Computing) protocol to send data between Mac OS X and the client application.
Now, if someone does know of a non-VNC solution, I'd be happy to hear it.
Anyone have experience with Aqua Connect? Found them from Google, and they claim the next version works on RDP as well as VNC. Wondering if it's just a nice wrapper around the VNC capabilities #Soeren Kuklau pointed out.
Thanks for the link to Vine Server, that's worth investigating.
John Vasileff,
Back to My Mac is a tunnelling / NAT traversal technique that enables the use of any networking (including VNC-based remote control). iChat screen sharing, Finder Screen Sharing and Remote Desktop all use VNC. Apple does not offer any non-VNC solutions.
Citrix XenDesktop iPhone Demo
Related
I have slow network, slow probably because of the tools to filter the traffic and because we run VPN, so sometimes when i run TeamViewer on one PC from the network, i get ID and PW and try to connect from PC out of the network it just accepts ID and PW and hangs, doesnt show anything, i think this is because the network is too slow right ?
So i am wondering would VNC be better solution ? I know that VNC is slow even if you run it on fast LAN network, but i think its slow because its protocol is made like that, other than that i think it will be more reliable than TeamViewer ?
Also suggest me "best" VNC server and client.
Other suggestions are welcome as well.
Thanks in advance.
Teamviewer has been quite buggy for me, and a little heavy on the CPU, specially when using it in non-Windows machines. Hamachi, however, has worked well for me in the past.
I recommend that you use Hamachi to set up a virtual "VPN", and then use the built-in client/servers for remote desktop access. In Ubuntu, use the standard screen sharing, that uses a VNC server/client; in Windows, use remote desktop connection from Microsoft, and on the Mac, use the standard Desktop Sharing service (which is a VPN service/server, but only seems to work perfectly with Apple clients).
I need to write an app on Mac OS X that would send remote command to Windows applications to perform some tasks. The computers will be sitting on the same subnet and the Mac and Windows computers all have a fixed IP.
The data sent over really are just some string or boolean parameters so that the Windows app can perform specific tasks.
Someone will be writing the Windows app and I will be writing the Mac app.
I can find in the developer's doc about Mac to Mac communication, but nothing about what I need.
What's the best way to achieve this? What protocol is best suited for this?
Take a look at the Bonjour SDk for Mac and Windows: http://developer.apple.com/opensource/
There are (at least) two separate problems here:
#1 is how you discover the other app. Bonjour is one possibility, as is a local broadcast, as is explicitly configuring the hostname of the peer
#2 is how you talk to the other machine once you find it. For that part, I would suggest:
a) use TCP instead of UDP (in most cases), so you don't have to worry about retransmissions & sequencing
b) rather than inventing your own client-server protocol on top of TCP, use an existing one. I hear there's something called "HTTP" that's starting to catch on...
Could you just use UDP to broadcast a message out to the network? Your apps (regardless of whether they are running on Mac or Windows) can listen for the message and process them as needed.
I need a virtual server for web development, it'll host Apache+Postgres+Ruby+something else.
What's the most effective software to run such a server? (ie with least virtualization overhead)
Is there a way to run Linux as as service?
I use VirtualBox at the moment, but it's inconvenient in some ways, such as it needs an emulator window open which also captures keyboard input when alttabbed into.
(Also, coLinux hangs at boot on my machine, so it's probably not an option)
Check out the features of VMWare Server. It's free, you just have to register.
I've never found VMware to be much of a performance hog unless running 3+ virtual machines.
The latest free server version (VMware Server 2) runs as a service IIRC, so you can set up your dev server to start up and shut down when your PC does, and you can either log on to the VM's console through the web interface, or create a shortcut on your desktop so it's fairly non-obtrusive.
There is a very convenient utility that hides VirtualBox from the foreground completely: vboxctrl. With vboxctrl you can run a Linux server on your Windows machine, make it automatically go to sleep when Windows shuts down or hibernates; then use any SSH client to log in to the server. Or you can use Xming to open graphical windows from the Linux server; I've worked quite a lot of time in GVim open through Xming.
If anyone needs more details, leave a comment, I may write an article about this.
I'm trying to remotely control a Macintosh computer. I know that in the Windows world, you can use Remote Desktop to connect from one Windows computer to another Windows computer. This works relatively well.
I know that you can use a VNC server but this isn't always the most secure or give the best performance. Are there other options available for remotely connecting to a Mac?
In some situations Copilot is a good solution. Not so much for day-to-day admin, but great for remote tech support.
If you need the solution to be cross-platform (ie, controlling an OS X box from Windows) then VNC is the obvious choice. I've had much better luck with the free Vine VNC Server than with Apple's built in one. As for viewers, Chicken of the VNC on OS X or Tight VNC on Windows are good solutions.
As others have said, for security firewall VNC and then use an SSH tunnel. There's lots of ways to do that, and the exact details depends on OS, firewall, network, etc. One method of creating an SSH tunnel for VNC is described here.
If you're trying to connect from one (Leopard) Mac to another, you can use the built-in Screen Sharing functionality; turn the server on from the Sharing System Preferences pane, and either use the network browser (on a LAN) or just open a vnc:// URL.
If you're trying to manage a bunch of Macs, try Apple's Remote Desktop (ARD) software; it's sold in 10- and unlimited-client versions, so if you've got fewer than 5 or so Macs it's probably not worth the money. The client bits for ARD are part of OS X. Screen Sharing and ARD use the same protocol, which includes some Apple-proprietary extensions to VNC which do encryption (either of all data, or of just keystroke/password info) and support adaptive JPEG compression, which gives you decent-enough performance (usable, but nothing like RDP or NX unfortunately).
If you need something cross-platform, check out TeamViewer (which will punch through firewalls and so forth).
Apple's Remote Desktop has AES encryption. Another good way is to just enable SSH in sharing and use shell access to perform tasks without interrupting the user.
http://www.apple.com/remotedesktop/
^That's your best solution.
If you go into the Settings panel, you can find a variety of other remote access options including SSH.
You can use VNC which is built into Tiger.
Yeah, VNC is good, but what about Apple's Remote Desktop?
If you are looking for a free, secure solution: I would recommend using any of a number of VNC servers that are available, blocking the ports that VNC uses to communicate, and then using SSH tunneling to connect. This way, ssh is encrypting everything, and you can still rely on free, open source (?), and cross platform standards for controlling the Desktop remotely.
Citrix, the people behind pc anywhere and the windows remote desktop have a hosted app called "Go to my pc" https://www.gotomypc.com/
I've heard people says it good.
I personally like RHUB's service for remote access and collaboration. It's an appliance that's easy to use and very secure. The device works from behind your firewall (instead of outside of it).
if you need low bandwidth or cross platform there's RDP server for mac that also offers there own iRapp protocol
from their site:
http://www.coderebel.com/2013/11/08/irapp-mac-client-available-download
Lowest supported speed: 512 kbit/s (64 KB/s) for iRAPP protocol
By adjusting the image quality you are able to make iRAPP work on
lower bandwidth connections as recommended above.
iRapp TS (Mac Terminal Server) allows multiple users to connect one
Mac simultaneously
If I attempt to connect to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard's built in vnc server at a low color depth from Windows, the client bombs after connecting. It only works when I set it to the highest color depth. I've tried with at least 3 windows VNC clients. Any ideas? There some setting I can set in Mac OS X?
It takes about 20 seconds to repaint the screen with my current connection and high bit depth setting.
Not with the builtin VNC server. Vine Server allows you to change the bit depth that clients connect at though.
In my experience you can't lower the color depth with the default vnc server. I won't assert it, because maybe that behaviour could be changed using a console command.
I'd recommend installing another VNC server in mac, like http://sourceforge.net/projects/osxvnc/
The built-in vnc seems to have very little configurability that I can see.
As an alternative, you can try using osxvnc which I believe allows different bit depths
You can from the client side switch to High Color(16 bits) but not Low Color(8 bits). You can also enable JPEG compression. With both of these options on the sessions speed of to me from completely unusable(~45s for initial screen draw and ~5s lag on clicking menus) to quite usable(<5s for initial screen draw and <1s lag on clicking menus).
Note that these times are for connecting from a remote computer to my home iMac on a cable modem. Also this is running dual screens witch get sent out even though I only use the primary one on VNC. I have yet to figure out a way to switch off the secondary screen in VNC and its to troublesome to unplug it.
I use both. I find the built-in VNC server in OS X offers the most compatibility with keystrokes. I use it when I'm on the local network. When using VPN (much slower), I setup Vine Server ("System Server" mode) on a non-standard port # (say 5905), with a much lower color resolution, so the screen doesn't take 30 seconds to redraw whenever I click something.
Then I just ask my client to connect over the appropriate port: 5900 calls the built-in VNC server (for high rez use on the LAN), & 5905 calls Vine Server (for screen update speed over VPN). Best of both worlds.
I gave up and started using LogMeIn's free edition.