ShareTool offers a Back to my Mac alternative

www.livelook.net - share screen without installing anything on your PC/MAc

I think this entry was presuming that Back to My Mac actually works, which for the majority of people I know it does not!

So this software looks very interesting, as Apple still have not managed to get BTMM working correctly

How do we know we can trust these guys? I mean, we're opening our selves up to random joe who says he's safe and secure, but who are they?

One more option, which isn't as robust but is free: YuuGuu.com. Works on PC and Mac.

Hmm.. Does not sound like a very secure solution. You must use uPNP and Bonjour which lower your security significantly.

uPNP is very INSECURE. It lets any program (such as a trojan you downloaded off the internet) to open up ports on your router WITHOUT your knowledge. Not a good idea. IMHO, Everyone should turn OFF uPNP on their routers.

Secondly, Bonjour is a hackers dream since it does NOT require any sort of authentication for its use It lets anyone easily discover all the devices, Macs etc on your LAN including software version numbers etc. That is the first thing a hacker wants to know. What hardware and software you are running.

There is always a tradeoff between security and convenience. uPNP and Bonjour are very convenient (especially for those who are newbies to computers) but that convenience comes with a price -- much lower security.

Since Mac to my mac and Sharetool require uPNP and Bonjour, I would never use EITHER product.

It is best to stick with a secure VPN solution (typically via a SSH tunnel) or Apple's ARD. To easily find the remote computer on the internet, use a free service like dyndns.org.

Don't forget about logmein:

http://www.logmein.com

I use it to help my mom with her computer issues.

I got Back To My Mac finally working for the first time the other day between my MacBook (at work) and my Mac mini (at home).

I remember I could see my printer at home through Bonjour but I believe that my remote iTunes Library was not available.

Has anyone gotten the remote iTunes streaming working through Back To My Mac (in remote subnets, of course)?

For file sharing:
Enable the builtin FTP server (or the SSH server for SFTP)

To control remotely your mac running Leopard:
a) install a no-ip.client from no-ip.org (or others dynamic DNS services) and configure it
b) from the Finder menu > Connect and enter:
vnc://thenameyouregistered.no-ip.org

That's it. Free and (rather) easy.

I prefer to use logmein.com It's multiplatform, free and does it's job perfectly.

VNC is just fine for me, thanks.