Mac hack - Free remote management!
Feeling lazy? Have a couple of Macs around the house? This one’s for you!
Being able to remote control a computer is nothing new, and the Mac OS has supported it for a long while. But with 10.5 it’s never been easier. But before we set up a remote controlled Mac, let’s talk about some of the ways this work.
VNC
VNC - this is a standard that can be found on Linux machines as well as Mac OS. Essentially one computer acts as a VNC server an a VNC client connects to observe or control the server. The Mac OS can run as a VNC server out of the box. In 10.5 this feature can be found in the sharing control panel. One Mac VNC client I’ve used in the past is “Chicken of the VNC” a quick google should turn up a download for this app, if you’re interested
A BETTER WAY
Apple Remote Desktop is a swell way to remote control Macs on your Network, however it’s not free. It is an application designed for a system administrator to monitor or control a bunch of machines. The lite version that comes with 10.5 can be found in iChat - the screen sharing feature! The cool thing, and the hack I’m getting to, is using this screen sharing service to remote control your Macs with the same elegance the full version of Remote Desktop gives you. It’s all there - just disabled!
1) Look in your hard drive in /System/Library/CoreServices - you should find “Screen Sharing” - the application which will allow you to remote control the machines. I put mine in my dock.
2) If you load it, it asks where to connect. You can use the IP as provided by the sharing control panel, but there’s an easier way. Hop into terminal and type this: defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing ShowBonjourBrowser_Debug 1
3) Now when you load Screen Sharing, you’ll see a more detailed window with a list of computers on the network using bonjour and remote management in the sharing control panel.
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- Screen Sharing
WHY?
This is useful if you have a desktop Mac in the house - you can connect to and control it from a laptop. It’s also fun for pranks 
The ScreenSharing solution is also nice because it will scale the higher resolution desktop to fit on your laptop’s screen - Chicken of the VNC doesn’t do this. Most Linux distributions have a VNC client as well so you can get at your desktop Mac from pretty much anything or anywhere. That’s right - if you’re confident with exposing your machine to the world, you can share out this service to the internet and get at your home computer anywhere in the world.