What went wrong recently with Edovia’s Screens Connect?
May 1, 2022 5:10 PM Subscribe
Up until recently I had A Mac mini, a Netgear Nighthawk router and Edovia Screens Connect working in harmony. I could be away from home and use the Screens client app to login and control my home computer. Then something happened involving port mapping?
I want to stress that until this week, everything was working correctly. Screens Connect didn’t require me to fiddle with the Mac’s settings or the router settings, only for me to startup the client and sign in using the username and password I had established when I bought the program.
Then suddenly this week, I can’t log in anymore. When I finally got home to check on the home computer, Screen Connect was giving an error that said “Port Mapping Unavailable” and asking me to change router settings and establish a static IP. The entire reason I paid for the app was the promised simplicity of not having to do those things.
I hadn’t touched anything on the home computer or the router. I’ve already tried restarting the router, rebooting the Mac, and even hitting the reset button and rebooting the router’s initial setup. Still getting the same error.
What could have caused this new problem and how can I deal?
Or is there some other solution that will allow me to remotely operate my Mac which is behind the router from away? I know Apple Remote Desktop exists, but that seems overpowered for what I need.
I want to stress that until this week, everything was working correctly. Screens Connect didn’t require me to fiddle with the Mac’s settings or the router settings, only for me to startup the client and sign in using the username and password I had established when I bought the program.
Then suddenly this week, I can’t log in anymore. When I finally got home to check on the home computer, Screen Connect was giving an error that said “Port Mapping Unavailable” and asking me to change router settings and establish a static IP. The entire reason I paid for the app was the promised simplicity of not having to do those things.
I hadn’t touched anything on the home computer or the router. I’ve already tried restarting the router, rebooting the Mac, and even hitting the reset button and rebooting the router’s initial setup. Still getting the same error.
What could have caused this new problem and how can I deal?
Or is there some other solution that will allow me to remotely operate my Mac which is behind the router from away? I know Apple Remote Desktop exists, but that seems overpowered for what I need.
Response by poster: I can say with 99.9% certainty no one else has touched the router. I did buy it myself and set it up, the only people who could have touched it are my elderly parents who would have had no reason to, or burglars who broke in for that purpose alone. No one else could have applied an update, although I can't rule out an automatic update.
The Nighthawk's password wasn't the default, and in any case when I restored the device to initial settings I created a new, different admin password.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 12:38 PM on May 2, 2022
The Nighthawk's password wasn't the default, and in any case when I restored the device to initial settings I created a new, different admin password.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 12:38 PM on May 2, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
Less benignly, is there any chance your NETGEAR Nighthawk has a default or easily-guessed password, and might have been accessed by someone other than your ISP or a member of your household? Does restoring the device to "intial setup" include restoring default credentials?
It also sounds like there are some macOS updates that break Edovia Screens Connect and will require Edovia Screens Connect to be updated after macOS is updated.
posted by All Might Be Well at 6:17 PM on May 1, 2022