Chicken of the VNC

imac davidimac david
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
My mother in law is soon to switch to a Mac mini, after years of a PC. All she uses it for is email and games, so there should be little scope for screw-ups. But she is worried.



As she lives in a different country, what limited support I can give is further restrained, so I figured to install VNC /Chicken of the VNC so that I can see what she's up to when she has pproblems.



I've got it working at home, but I see that the IP address is always 10.0.1.3, which I understand is a typical IP address for a small home network.



How do I find out her real IP adress when she's in Ireland? Or how can she find out to tell me what it is? She obviously won't have a static IP address.



Thanks,



David

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    She can use http://www.whatismyip.com to find her outside IP address.



    If she has a router, you will also have to forward the ports VLC uses to her Mac's static IP address on her LAN and let them through OSX's firewall. There are free services like DynDNS.org that will automatically update a URL if her ISP's DHCP address changes.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    imac davidimac david Posts: 286member
    Great, thanks.



    BTW - is this VNC software cross platform? If I put VNC server software on a friends PC, can my Mac using Chicken of the VNC control the PC?



    Regards,



    David
  • Reply 3 of 7
    gsxrboygsxrboy Posts: 565member
    Yep !



    Maybe get your mum a dyndns addy to make it easier on yourself
  • Reply 4 of 7
    piwozniakpiwozniak Posts: 815member
    Actually 10.4 icludes vnc client...



    1. Go to Sharing is System Preferences

    2. Select apple remote desktop from the list

    3. Click on Access Privileges button

    4. Check on VNC viewers may control screen with password box.

    5. Type in the password which will be used by remote vnc clients.

    6. Click OK.

    7. Make sure remote desktop control is started.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    fahlmanfahlman Posts: 740member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by gsxrboy

    Maybe get your mum a dyndns addy to make it easier on yourself



    Last time I checked the Mac clients for dynamic DNS services were not that great. Hopefully his mom's router has it it built in. A lot them do these days. If you need help determining if the router has the capability to work with a dynamic DNS service post the manufacturer and model number.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    imac davidimac david Posts: 286member
    Thanks guys - hopefully you've given me enough information to do this. And I won't need to resurrect this thread!



    David
  • Reply 7 of 7
    pubguypubguy Posts: 108member
    Well, I signed up with no-ip.com for my dynamic DNS. Their Mac client can be installed as a background daemon service, so you don't even know its there, but it's constantly updating the IP with their service. Works Great - is transparent to the user - and its FREE.
Sign In or Register to comment.