Open Source Typical Mac User Live

 

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Welcome to the Typical Mac User Live show. My name is Victor Cajiao and I am your host this evening. My regular Podcast Typical Mac User Podcast can be found at www.typicalmacuser.com and that shows is released on Tuesday nights.

 

If you are listening to the Talkshoe stream and want to be an interactive part of the show. All you have to do is call

The you can Call Phone Number: (724) 444-7444 or chat with us.

 

As I announced yesterday this is going to be the last "regular" live show and I will definetly miss doing this part of my show. As I said in the statement I will be doing occasional (I don't want to commit to any schedule) live show somewhere else . I will annouce those via the studio show and twitter when it happens.

 

It's been One year seven months of doing live shows and you guys have been fantastic. Many of you show up here week after week and participate in so many ways. It would take a whole show to name you all but you knwo who you are.

I want to thank Talkshoe for providing a unique service that does the live an interactive thing better than anything out there. They have provided all of us a place to do this and hosting for my files and have until this point very fairly compensated me. I support their business decision even if we have some differences in their execution of it. The show could not have happened without their techology and I thank them for that and wish them the best in their business. The archive mp3 file of all my shows in the last 1.7 years is still with them and will be until when and if I move it as appropriate. They do that for free for all hosts and that is very generous.

 

I have been very blessed in that all of my guest co-hosts have been genours with their time and are all wonderful people in the mac community. I want to give special thanks to Katie Floyd from the MacCore podcast who has been with me anytime I needed her and was almost always in the audience. Katie is a wonderful member of the mac community and have become a friend.

 

The second guest co-host I want to thanks is Steve Stanger who is my co-host tonight for this final show. Steve and I did one show and that turned into Mac Maintenance Sunday. I think for all by 3 or 4 times we have done a show once a month. Steve is incredibly talented and him and I have a great professional and off the mic releationship. So that all being said we have a full show lined up for you tonight and we are going to get to it rght after we hear from our friends over at Ambrosiasw.com/victor who continue to financially to support my efforts.

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Let's hear from our Sponsor Ambrosia Software

 

 

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All things remote access

 

Leopard (Mac OS based) remote screen & file sharing.

 

Back to my Mac - .Mac's remote access feature. Allows you to access files and also screen share remote Macs running Leopard. Easy to use and set up (in theory). It does require you to have a $99 .Mac acct.

 

(Free or low cost alternatives a little later in the show).

 

iChat - screen / file sharing - If you do any kind of support either for work, if you're a Mac consultant or you're your families "Mac guru". (This is the reason you need all of your family members who you support to upgrade to Leopard). Even if they don't use iChat I'd suggest you set up a "trouble shooting" ichat account on their computer (it's free to get an AOL IM acct) or you create an free iChat account that the remote user can use to log in with. This is an awesome way to do remote training or trouble shooting. As long as the issue your trouble shooting isn't their Internet connection.

 

People have been reporting some problems when trying to use screen sharing with certain routers. Most of what I've been hearing is that it appears that the biggest issue is when both users are using either the airport express or extreme base stations. I haven't had a chance to verify if any of the resent updates have fixed this. (How about the listeners? Any success when using Apple's Airpot hardware to do screen sharing?)

 

 

Network to Network - alternatives:

 

- free or inexpensive -

 

There's a great article on lifehacker.com called "Get Back to Your Mac Without Paying for It" That takes you step by step on how to set up "Back to my Mac" functionality with out spending a dime on .Mac. The directions are pretty extensive but easy to follow and you do need to have Leopard running on the computer you wish to access remotely.

http://lifehacker.com/365673/get-back-to-your-mac-without-paying-for-it

 

There's also a great video available on how to set you your tiger or leopard Mac. This video demonstrates using SSH tunnels and VNC screen-sharing software to use your Mac from any PC over the Internet. It’s fast, secure, cross-platform, and can be done entirely with open source software. Requires very extensive set up, but the video makes it look easy.

http://howto.diveintomark.org/remote-mac/

 

Note: Mac OS has ssh built in. And pretty much any machine running Unix - SSH (Secure Shell) - SSH in itself is not a file transfer protocol but provides secure, password based access to remote systems. Data sent through and SSH tunnel is encrypted. (great intro to ssh - http://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/ssh-agent-forwarding.html)

 

LogMeIn Hamachi is a VPN service that's easy sets and enables secure remote access to any network, anywhere there's an Internet connection. Free and paid versions available. Used to work great, then I started having problems with it. Not sure if they have gotten their act together... (Anyone use it? How is it behaving now?)

https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/vpn.asp

 

LogMeIn Free allows for secure remote control / screen sharing - easy remote access to your Mac or PC from any computer with an Internet connection

https://secure.logmein.com/products/free/

 

TeamViewer - Mac client announced May 28th is a GoToMyPC-like app. The application is free for personal use.

http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx

 

ShareTool ($20)

ShareTool lets you access all of the Bonjour services on your home network from anywhere in the world. This includes iTunes Music Sharing, Screen Sharing, File Sharing, and more.

http://www.bainsware.com/

 

- commercial software -

 

Timbuktu Pro Remote Control Software (not cheap, but worth it if you need cross platform, Enterprise level remote control of computers)

http://www.netopia.com/software/products/tb2/

 

Mac HelpMate and Auto HelpMate - Zero - Configuration Screen Sharing.Remote Control for a Mac - through Firewalls and Routers. (not cheap, but worth it if you do a lot of Mac support remotely).

http://www.machelpmate.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

 

There are, of course other application and web based services (for a fee) that allow you to do screen sharing between Macs and PCs.

 

 

Same network screen sharing / file sharing / remote control - alternatives:

 

- free -

 

Leopard on both computers use screen sharing or file sharing. (easy to set up) Apple's built in HELP system has the directions on getting this up and running.

 

On other versions of the Mac OS use - VNC (virtual network computing) for screen sharing. Set up file sharing for file access. Leopard and Tiger both have VNC servers built in (Tiger >sharing control panel > select Apple remote access >once selected you will be able to set up a password. In Leopard the setting is called remote management, but this is a good option if your are trying to control a leopard based mac with a computer not running leopard or even the Mac OS.... Like a PC.... And Vice-versa). This is how you can run a computer or server "headless" - With out a monitor attached.

 

To access a computer running a vnc server you need to use a VNC client. For example chicken of the VNC at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/ - easy to configure, there's tons of articles on the net on how to set up VNC on your Mac.

 

To remote control / screen share a Mac running Leopard on the same network Choose Apple > System Preferences, and then click Sharing.

Select the Screen Sharing checkbox from the Service list. You will then be able to select what users can screen share the Mac and if a password is required.

 

There's even a VPN client for Jailbroken iphones and iPod Touch's - VNsea

http://code.google.com/p/vnsea/

 

Remote Desktop Connection from Microsoft allows you to connect from your Macintosh computer to a Windows-based computer and work with programs and files on that PC. http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/remote-desktop/default.mspx

 

- commercial -

 

Apple Desktop - great for computer labs or companies with a lot of macs that need to be managed. Distribute software, provide real-time online help to end users, create detailed software and hardware reports, and automate routine management tasks — all without leaving your desk.

 

 

 

 

 

SHOW ENDING:

 

 

Well I want to thank Steve Stanger from the Mac Attack Podcast http://themacattack.us/ for being with ust tonight. You definetly want to subscribe to his podcast and listen to each episode and some of the past ones. I sure do.

 

Also likely by tonight or tomorrow there will be a new Macroundtable episode that Kaite, Allison, David Sparks and I recorded. Make sure you go to macroundtable.com and subscribe as this show is full of very interesting MacHeads.

 

 

The Typical Mac User Podcast can be found at www.typicalmacuser.com and that shows will now be released weekly on Tuesday nights. If you haven't subscribed to that show yet, head over to the web site at www.typicalmacuser.com and hit the ONE BUTTON iTunes subscription. If you are subscribed be sure to not unsubscribe. For now this is Victor Cajiao saying... enjoy the rest of yoru week.

 

For now this is your Host Victor Cajiao saying, enjoy the rest of your Sunday