Filed under: Software
Back To My Mac alternative: TeamViewer
Back To My Mac got you down? After the 10.5.3 update, all BTMM is telling me is what I already know -- my Comcast-supplied router is old and doesn't support NAT-PMP or UPnP. iChat Screen Sharing works, but really needs someone on the other end of the connection to activate it. Yeah, Timbuktu has been available for years, but who knows what Motorola is going to do with it in the future? MacHelpMate is wonderful for supporting clients, but what if I just want to access my own Mac when I'm on the road?TeamViewer is a popular GoToMyPC-like app that was Windows-only until May 28th, when the Mac client was announced. The application is free for personal use, which is nice for those of us who want to get "Back to our Macs" but can't get BTMM to work or don't have .Mac accounts.
I gave the freebie service a test last night, accessing my home iMac from my MacBook Air over a Sprint Mobile Broadband connection. Setup was simple: I installed the application on both Macs, then wrote down the ID and password generated by TeamViewer on the iMac. I left TeamViewer running on the iMac, then went out to dinner.
While enjoying a few beers, I popped open the MBA and fired up TeamViewer. I told it to connect to my iMac, gave it the ID and password, and was rewarded with complete control of my machine at home. TeamViewer works well for remote control, file transfers, and blasting presentations out to co-workers. For commercial use, TeamViewer sells licenses varying from $249 for six months, or an unlimited license for $1399. If you're a system admin who needs to control both Macs and PCs remotely, TeamViewer may be the app for you. Download TeamViewer here and see if it works for you, too!
Note: Quite a few commenters (and our own Mike Rose) also recommend LogMeIn as a free/paid option for remote control of both Macs and PCs.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
MaestroJAL said 8:10AM on 5-30-2008
I don't know if you've reviewed ShareTool by Bains Software (http://www.bainsware.com/) but it allows you to use your home network as if you were actually connected to it physically. Services are added via Bonjour which allows you to use Screen Sharing and mount all network drives easily through the OS. It also allows you surf the web securely and through firewalls by using your home computer to channel data to your remote computer. IMHO, I believe this is a much better set-up than Back to My Mac.
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Fernando said 8:30AM on 5-30-2008
Ummmm. www.logmein.com IMO the best around and it's free. I use it to connect to all my friends PC's and Mac's it's great.
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Luigi193 said 8:33AM on 5-30-2008
THis is the best tip ever!
Finally a free one that works with 10.3!!! I need to do alot of stuff with a 10.3 computer over the internet...
Thanks a ton!
Jonathan said 8:46AM on 5-30-2008
Back To My Mac should be abbreviated BTMM...not BTTM. Sorry to nitpick on a Friday!
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Kilian said 8:57AM on 5-30-2008
LogMeIn ( http://www.logmein.com ) has been mentioned earlier and is a much better solution than TeamViewer IMHO. It let's you connect to your PC or Mac from any Web Browser using your computer account: no random generated IDs or passwords.
Also it has a nice Dashboard-like webpage where you can add all the computers you want to control to access them with a simple click.
It's free and worth a look.
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kj said 9:12AM on 5-30-2008
+1 for LogMeIn
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Jason said 9:26AM on 5-30-2008
LogMeIn is a really nice product and you can't beat the price.
I'd still give a shout out to Timbuktu though. It is a bit long in the tooth, but Motorola has been updating it (latest release supports Leopard) and it is still by far the fastest remote control, and they have a built in dyndns-like client too.
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Chris G. said 9:28AM on 5-30-2008
+1 on LogMeIn.com. I use it, my brothers use it, it rocks.
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Steven said 9:32AM on 5-30-2008
"iChat Screen Sharing works, but really needs someone on the other end of the connection to activate it."
Actually, if you download Chax, you can choose people on your buddy list to always accept files, screen sharing, and video. So if you have 2 AIM names, you can easily have one always accept the other for screen sharing. This method is faster than LogMeIn, but I use both.
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Bailey Berro said 10:08AM on 5-30-2008
Wow! This is amazing. I have used applications like this before, but none this great. I now use this at school and connect to my home network to get through those proxies!
FathomFruit.com
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Troy Murray said 10:23AM on 5-30-2008
What was the performance like controlling your iMac from your MBA? Compared to BTMM performance.
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iGO said 10:29AM on 5-30-2008
www.logmein.com trumps ALL
It is Free, for as many PC's or Mac's, as you care to connect to.
You can connect to your Mac from ANY location, at ANY time, from Firefox, Safari, IE, etc. You just login, like when you go to your bank account. Easy Peasy. There is no comparison.
And if you need more functionality, there are paid versions, that have to be worth every Penny.
I've asked and I am hopeful that one day soon, they will also support Linux OS, like Ubuntu.
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CaptSaltyJack said 10:50AM on 5-30-2008
I'm curious about any security concerns people have with LogMeIn. You're using their web site to connect to your remote computers, aren't people worried about granting that kind of access to LogMeIn's service?
cmfnyc said 11:05AM on 5-30-2008
Logmein works like a charm. Free and easy, what's not to love.
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CaptSaltyJack said 10:54AM on 5-30-2008
By the way, I have a hot tip for everyone.
The not-so-known "NoMachine" guys are responsible for the NX server/client, which is popular on Linux machines. I can tell you from using NX that it is far superior to VNC or Remote Desktop. You connect to an NX server via port 22 (ssh), so it's automatically secure and fully encrypted just as ssh is. If I connect to my home Linux box right now, from work, I can drag windows around on the Linux box and the screen refreshes are FAST. It's almost like being on a LAN, no joke. Plus, NX doesn't take over the remote machine like VNC does. Since it uses ssh, you can get your own graphical login and anyone who is using the remote box is completely undisturbed. Basically they can have their own desktop session going, and you can have yours.
Anyway, NoMachine is coming up with an NX server for Mac OS some time in the near future, should be free too! NX clients currently exist for all platforms. I'm really looking forward to it.
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EMoShunz said 11:06AM on 5-30-2008
I haven't tried any of these others mentioned in the article, but I will tonight. I use logmein right now because it was the only option. Frankly, except for the cross-platform-ability, it sucks. very slow, choppy, refuses to display images randomly. but like i said, i can connect from os x, xp, and kubuntu, and there was no other option i knew of until now. i'll report back after i test early next week.
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Taxman said 11:23AM on 5-30-2008
I agree completely. I found LogMeIn to be very slow and choppy. I have not used it in some time so perhaps they have improved in this area but the last time I used it, responsiveness was abysmal.
Mike Davis said 11:39AM on 5-30-2008
So these companies can figure it out, but Apple can't? That's annoying.
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Metryq said 2:56PM on 5-30-2008
Mike Davis said...
"So these companies can figure it out, but Apple can't? That's annoying."
Can't figure what out? Linking through firewalls and NAT? Most solutions use a remote server as a "meeting place," which is what iChat does through .Mac or AIM. You can port forward without the outside meeting place, but that's a bit too techie for most users.
Denis said 12:14PM on 5-30-2008
doesn't work under 10.4.11, getting this stuff in systemlog:
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error'
what(): locale::facet::_S_create_c_locale name not valid
Abort trap
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