VNC From Canada to U.S.

A

Adrifter

Registered
Hello. I have a bit of an issue and I don't know if there is an easy fix. I have a friend on a windows computer in Canada. She wants to get into my Mac computer in New York. I turned on Apple Remote Desktop and did the password requirement thing. I also turned on my ftp server. When she tries to VNC in with any of her programs, it says she can not connect. NOT that she can't find my computer. It says she can't connect because she doesn't have the correct priviledges or something. I have all my VNC ports open and Didn't think it would be too difficult. I think one of the issues might be that I am on a network router since I live with 3 other dudes at college? I heard rumors that the issue could be because router IPs change, but my IP hasn't changed once since I have attached. Any help you can offer to help this issue would be great. Thanks.

Mike
 
You have to do the following for her to access your Mac on your internal network:

1. Enable port forwarding on your router to allow for VNC requests accessing the public IP address of your router (typically ports 5800-5901) to be forwarded to the internal IP address of your Mac inside the internal network.

2. If your router receives a dynamic public IP each time, then you need to register with a dynamic DNS service so that you can reach your network from the Internet. Otherwise, she would have to have the exact IP address of your router when you try and VNC in (which if you did step 1 should be forwarded to the Mac). Using dynamic DNS allows you to specify a name for your router ("blah-blah.ath.cx" for example) so that you don't have to remember the IP all the time. Also, your router should have a function for dynamic DNS so that it can update the service you choose with the updated IP address that the router gets from the ISP you use.

Here's a list of dynamic DNS service providers that you can pick and choose from:
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Internet/Servers/Address_Management/Dynamic_DNS_Services/
 
alright I am a bit of a noob here. The "enable port forwarding on the router"....how what I go about doing that? its a 4-port router Linksys ethernet router. Its not wireless so I can't use the Admin panel for Airport.

She also DOES have the exact IP for the router. I gave her two IPS...the one that comes up after turning Remote Access and the one I get when I use the IP widget. Neither work.

Thanks for responding so quickly.

MiKe
 
wow...I just watched the video. Pretty in-depth. But if my friend is willing to go through the motions then this might just work. Thanks a lot.
 
Satcomer said:
HOWTO Use Your Mac From Anywhere might give you an idea.
Click to expand...

Wow! I'm utterly confused by all of this networking stuff, but a step-by-step guide like that sure could help. I only wish something similar was available which explains how to connect two Macs together (I want to show my mom who just got an iMac how to use it, by setting up a remote desktop). I also have a Mac, but have never set anything like that up before and could need a quick and easy guide for this.

The guide above explains how to control a Mac from a PC.
 
Same thing, though. You just need a VNC client for the _Mac_ (there are free ones), but the setup on the Mac as a VNC server would be the same, no?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top