controlling PowerMac remotely

Z

zeroatma

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I have a PowerMac (Quad 2.5) running Leopard and a black MacBook, also with Leopard. I'm trying to find the best way to control the PowerMac remotely, not out of a particular need but just to distribute some resources.

Is there a better way than OS X's built-in screen sharing?
 
ssh? VNC? ARD (Apple Remote Desktop)?

What, specifically, are you trying to do? Do you need to "see a remote desktop," like with VNC/ARD/Screen Sharing? Do you only need access to the command line like with ssh?

If you can elaborate on what, specifically, you're trying to do when you say "control the PowerMac remotely," and "distribute some resources," maybe we can better steer you in the right direction.
 
Sorry to be unclear.

I haven't really decided on a particular application for the control, but ideally I'd like to see a remote desktop, but with less latency than Screen Sharing. At this point, I'd essentially like to use my MacBook as it were the keyboard and mouse (and maybe even the monitor).

Like I said, I haven't really come up with a reason WHY I'd want to do this given that the MacBook is more powerful; I'm wondering, "can this be done in a better way?"

One thought would be, I want to have word processing, image editing (you know, work) going on with the MacBook, with some sort of source material or possibly entertainment running on the desktop (through its monitor, not the laptop's) but without having to pick up the desktop's keyboard/mouse to do something.

Based on a simple example like that, is Screen Sharing my best best?
 
I think your best bet is with Apple Remote Desktop, which is like Screen Sharing on steroids. You can remotely install new software packages, generate reports, control/observe computers, etc. You can also reduce the color depth of the image, speeding up the display of the remote computer -- something you cannot do with Screen Sharing (it's always on full-color-depth).

Of course, it's not free, but it is a lot more robust than Screen Sharing. It uses the same protocol, though: VNC.

What would be ideal is something akin to Remote Desktop Connection under Windows -- it doesn't download "screenshots" like VNC does to display the remote desktop. Unfortunately, I don't think this exists under Mac OS X.

If you are versed in shell scripting and/or AppleScript, it would be possible to put together a few scripts that perform the actions you want to perform, then simply control them via an ssh session. Not terribly difficult, but if you're trying to avoid the command-line, then it's definitely not the way to go.
 
So far, I haven't found anything like RDC but Mac to Mac except for Apple Remote Desktop. I can't believe it costs so much! I could pay a little bit, but not $300+
Oh well, I'll keep looking, but otherwise I guess Screen Sharing (VNC) will work best.

Anybody know of any better VNC services? I used Chicken of the VNC with Tiger, it doesn't seem to refresh any faster than Screen Sharing does now.
 
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