Help me help my father.

April 2, 2006 1:31 PM

I have to support my Dad with his new computer, and I can't do that just by phone or by driving over there every time he has a problem. Is Apple Desktop Remote a viable solution to help with this?

We're both on Macs running OS X 10.4 - he has an Intel iMac, I have a G4 Mini, so that isn't the problem area. The question I'm having trouble answering is whether ADR will work from my ADSL connection (which goes through a local router on this side of my ADSL modem) to his computer on his ADSL connection (on his end the modem is attached directly to his computer).

Also, assuming that this is a solution that will work for us, if he's sitting at his computer and I have connected to it via this software, can he actually watch and thus follow along on his screen as I manipulate things? IOW is this a solution by which I can be on the phone with him and demonstrate things as I help him?

In addition - or alternatively - are there other solutions out there that might be better/cheaper/more effective?

posted by mikel to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Huh- I'm in a very similar situation- but recently came to decide that RD would only work for computers on the same network. Please, please. tell me that I'm wrong.
posted by carterk at 2:31 PM on April 2, 2006

Even if RD only works with computers on the same network, can't you just use OpenSSH or some other free VPN software to bridge them together? I could tell you half a dozen ways of doing this on a PC, but Macs are beyond me.
posted by tiamat at 2:35 PM on April 2, 2006

We use ARD at work. You can enable the client for a VNC Viewer like Chicken of the VNC to have access to it, but it's very slow. You don't have to be on the same network. We do is via IP address, and the connection speed is the most important part.

Honestly, you might be just as well off to find a good Mac VNC Server client for his side, as the VNC in ARD is really amazingly slow even on a decent network.

If you have the ARD Admin software, though, you're good to go and you can add his computer by IP address and then just take control of it, not to mention send him software, etc.
posted by smallerdemon at 2:36 PM on April 2, 2006

Here you go: OpenSSH for Mac

I guess you'd have to be at his computer the first time, or walk him through setting up the OpenSSH.

If there are firewalls or routers in the way, you could try hamachi: Hamachi for Mac OS
posted by tiamat at 2:42 PM on April 2, 2006

Here's some info on how to get to your dad's Mac from outside the network. It may or may not be relevant.

First, you need to know the IP address of your dad's internet connection. This probably changes regularly. You need a router that can report its address to a third party (like this one), called "DDNS". DDNS lets you assign a name to his internet connection, and the third party (i.e. dyndns.org) automatically keeps the IP address updated. When its time for you to connect, you'll simply use the host name.

You will need to open and forward TCP/UDP ports through the router. Port forwarding is also called "network address translation". Once a router is in place at your dads, you'll set a permanent IP address for his Mac. You'll tell the router (in its port forwarding screen) that any traffic coming through on specific port numbers is to be sent to the Mac. Those ports are 5900 and 3283. For best performance, open them on your router, too. To keep screen updates lively (otherwise you'll get blackouts) set the MTU (maximum transmission unit) setting to something higher than 1200.

Refer to your Apple documentation about ensuring the OS X firewall is properly set up.

For reference, here is the PDF for the Apple Remote Desktop Admin Guide. It's geared toward IT types, but it covers ARD over a wide area network pretty well. Refer to pages 48-50.
posted by disclaimer at 3:14 PM on April 2, 2006

Last time I looked into this, there is a big fat gotcha: the remoote machine's IP shouldn't be derived via local DHCP, as most home boxes are. If the remote box does get a local DHCP assignment, handing that IP to the would-be controller won't do any good, and handing the DHCP router's IP over won't do any good unless you have implemented port forwarding on the router - AND that router has a static IP address.

The problem, of course, is that setting up port-forwarding on a router is somthing that is notoriously hard to talk a non-techie through - and you can't see the client's screen until the forwarding is implemented.

I have heard of people using DynDNS in similar instances but again, if the DynDNs client is a local-space DHCP IP, you're up a creek.

The thing about this that drives me bananas is that clearly the problem has been solved in iChat; as far as i have been able to determine, ARD does not implement iChat-style third-party central routing. Timbuktu claims to, but my father and I were unable to get it to work due to the port-forwarding issue descibed above.
posted by mwhybark at 3:55 PM on April 2, 2006

I recommend Netopia's Timbuktu. It's a very mature product and it has worked great for me for years.
posted by markmillard at 4:04 PM on April 2, 2006

Don't use Apple Remote Desktop. If you go that route, use OSXvnc instead. It can use JPEG compression (with a client that supports it, such as TightVNC for Windows) which will be much much faster to use over the Internet than ARD.

I also recommend a dynamic DNS service to give his machine a hostname (in case his IP address changes) and using ssh tunneling to secure the VNC connection. In fact you should lock down his machine so it requires key pairs to log in over ssh, rather than allowing passwords.

Hamachi is kind of a pain to set up and in very early beta for the Mac (you need command-line invocations to get it going, and it doesn't always start up the first time, so you need a script to keep trying until it does) but it does work and it avoids the need for ssh and the dynamic DNS, since the computer will always have a static Hamachi address regardless of its IP address on the Internet. (Hamachi also solves the problem where both machines are NAT'd without port forwarding by making the connection through one of their servers, though this shouldn't be a problem in your situation since his computer is directly connected.)
posted by kindall at 6:02 PM on April 2, 2006

I tried to set up the above recommended firewalling/ports/VNC on my Mom's home computing environment and gave up. Fortunately it's OSX and hasn't required any support from me :)

The DHCP/DDNS setup is a pain. It might be easier to just provide your parent with printed instructions about how to determine the router's latest IP address, so that s/he can tell it to you over the phone.
posted by intermod at 8:46 PM on April 2, 2006

Many years ago, I used Timbuktu over a 14.4 dialup. It worked. Might give them a looksee.
posted by mmdei at 9:48 PM on April 2, 2006

Best answer: kindall, I'd actually suggest activating the default ARD client in OSX and using Chicken of the VNC; here's a TidBITS piece on this approach.

I have found that at least on my LAN this is the way to go.
posted by mwhybark at 12:50 PM on April 4, 2006

That'll probably be the best way to go if you're using a Mac as the client. If you're using Windows, I highly recommend using OSXvnc as the server and TightVNC as the client, the JPEG compression makes it much faster than you can get with ARD.
posted by kindall at 8:40 PM on April 4, 2006

huh, interesting. I have been using OSXvnc since forever but I have found the keyboard input under ARD superior. It strikes me that that input may actually be Chicken of the VNC, as opposed to my former widget, VNCThing.

Sigh. YA experiment.
posted by mwhybark at 10:01 PM on April 4, 2006