Too bad about ARD being "fiddly" especially considering that it's $79. I myself don't use it, but several of my colleagues have. I never understood why Apple feels it has to charge this much for it. I mean, Microsoft RDP macOS client is free.
Apple provides basic RDS screen sharing for free too so no need to fret about that. ARD is a enterprise tool to push settings, updates, applications and generate reports on system setup, software,and hardware config. Back to my Mac allowed for multiple macs to find each other over the internet, through firewalls and routers with zero configuration. It is freaking magic. Essentially, each Mac registers its ip with iCloud and shares it with all other macs so that when you connect it opens a vpn tunnel between the two systems and magic. That is what we will miss.
I guess I'm confused. I got a pop up saying Back To My Mac was being discontinued and the info at Apple (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208922) says that screen sharing is still available. What's the difference?
Screen sharing is on your local network. Back to My Mac works over the internet with no configuration beyond signing into the same iCloud account on each system. The author does a major disservice by down playing this. Reach out to Apple and fight to get this back.
Screen Sharing also works with a remote machine with a dedicated IP/subdomain. I connect to our office server all the time via command-K and vnc://subdomain.domain.com
Ya! And how many home users have a dedicated ip with a configured subdomain? Also you are only password protected on that connection and back to my Mac creates a transparent vpn tunnel. We need to encourage Apple to maintain this service.
I'm just saying it's not *only* limited to your local network. Also it's not limited to your iCloud account, which BTMM is. So, there's that. Trust me, I get the benefits of BTMM as I use it often. What's not been mentioned here is BTMM includes a straight up file server connection in the Finder as well, if you have that turned on.
I read the whole article & still not understand the difference between Screen Sharing (which I’m using everyday) and Back To My Mac (which I have never used). Local & global?
Screen looks exactly the kind of app I want on my iPad. Unfortunately the price is a bit steep (for myself, not for its purpose).
BTMM lets you connect to any other Mac signed into the same iCloud account as your local machine, regardless of where they are — not just for Screen Sharing but File Sharing as well. You see your other Mac names in the "Shared" list in any Finder sidebar.
Screen Sharing can work remotely but only in more complicated ways like with a known IP and port forwarding or mapped to a domain/subdomain etc but isn't limited to Macs logged into the same iCloud account.
Parallels Access is a great tool and you can control your desktop from another desktop or an iPad or an iPhone. I thonk it costs about $3 per month. It’s fast, intuitive and works great.
So you are recommending a solution from the company (Google) that is a master at pilfering all information it possibly can get hold of about you? The company that gives you options to turn things off, yet collect the data just the same without telling you. Do you really think this option is FREE?
You're not obligated to use every solution. That's why there are three here, and we'll be covering more in the future of varying expense.
If you don't use Google services, then you won't use this one, and you already know it. If you do, then you might. Regardless, it requires zero dollars to use.
It is an option, and it does work.
IMO you should not recommend any solution from that despicable company to Mac users.
Though not currently in use on this test machine (running Mojave), Little Snitch prevents all connections between any of my Mac's and all Google services. I wouldn't expose a bit or byte of my data to that GooGlu parasite.
Why is Apple losing so much ease of use ground to Google? They need better project managers and coders. Seamless Mac to Mac to iOS connectivity should be a one click solution with any added "family" members instantly notified and approved access options-joined to a list of remote Mac's, iPad's, iPhone's.
Don't down play this! This was a great tool! It might not have been comprehensive but it just worked without any configuration. This is a major negative and we should take it lying down. Contact Apple and let them know this is not ok!
Apple have always excelled at hiding or obfuscating too many neat features built into their OS's. They seem hell-bent on adding 50+ new features to every generation of OS with little to no regard to promoting their use. With every new feature Apple should accompany it with a video showing exactly what advantages it brings to a user.
I guess I'm confused. I got a pop up saying Back To My Mac was being discontinued and the info at Apple (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208922) says that screen sharing is still available. What's the difference?
Screen sharing is on your local network. Back to My Mac works over the internet with no configuration beyond signing into the same iCloud account on each system. The author does a major disservice by down playing this. Reach out to Apple and fight to get this back.
I totally agree. The "only" people who benefit from BMM are those with multiple Macs in different locations, who actively use them and depend on them. In other words, they are "only" Apple's most loyal, most engaged customers.
Relatedly -- these "remote control" apps are a no-brainer line of attack against a computer. I'm leery of any solution from a third party, particularly a small third party that charges nothing.
This is the type of functionality that ought to be provided by Apple. Microsoft provides this kind of functionality on Windows -- Apple definitely should do the same. More generally, Apple (and Microsoft) ought to provide strong first-party solutions for everything that involves the control and security of a computer -- those are fundamental, core features of an OS these days. We should not have to depend on third parties with unclear incentives for things like virus protection, remote control solutions, computer management, etc. Basically, anything that cannot work well in a sandbox ought to be provided by Apple (or Microsoft for Windows().
I read the whole article & still not understand the difference between Screen Sharing (which I’m using everyday) and Back To My Mac (which I have never used). Local & global?
Screen looks exactly the kind of app I want on my iPad. Unfortunately the price is a bit steep (for myself, not for its purpose).
BTMM lets you connect to any other Mac signed into the same iCloud account as your local machine, regardless of where they are — not just for Screen Sharing but File Sharing as well. You see your other Mac names in the "Shared" list in any Finder sidebar.
Screen Sharing can work remotely but only in more complicated ways like with a known IP and port forwarding or mapped to a domain/subdomain etc but isn't limited to Macs logged into the same iCloud account.
I see. Thanks.
I guess the reason why I have never used it is…
1. When I’m out, 99% of the time I’m taking iPad. 2. My Mac mini which is the only machine I want to connect to when I’m away is not signed in to my iCloud account.
When I’m at home it’s easy to connect to this Mac from my MacBook Air through Screen Sharing so I have never bothered with Back To My Mac. Now if there is Back To My Mac on iPad that will be awesome.
In my opinion, the best alternative is DWService.net
Full VNC + file access right from a browser, without having to install anything on the client side, which means you can remotely access your mac (or Windows, or Linux machine) from any computer without having to download an app or an extension on the computer which is in your hand. Also, it's free and open source
Back to my Mac was essentially a DynDNS solution piped thru a VPN to made any mac bind to the account reachable even behind a firewall. For me Back to my Mac wasn't a screen sharing solution or a merely file sharing, it's way to reach any IPv6 service (AFP, VNC, SSH, LDAP, etc) on a remote computer thru its bonjour name.
I guess I'm confused. I got a pop up saying Back To My Mac was being discontinued and the info at Apple (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208922) says that screen sharing is still available. What's the difference?
Screen sharing is on your local network. Back to My Mac works over the internet with no configuration beyond signing into the same iCloud account on each system. The author does a major disservice by down playing this. Reach out to Apple and fight to get this back.
Screen Sharing also works with a remote machine with a dedicated IP/subdomain. I connect to our office server all the time via command-K and vnc://subdomain.domain.com
Ya! And how many home users have a dedicated ip with a configured subdomain? Also you are only password protected on that connection and back to my Mac creates a transparent vpn tunnel. We need to encourage Apple to maintain this service.
I get your point, but plenty of routers support dynamic dns services. You don’t need a fixed IP or subdomain. BTMM isn’t coming back. It didn’t work reliably in the first place. Now that Apple is out of the router business, there’s less reason for them to support it. They have usage stats and I bet you only a tiny percentage of their users have ever set it up. There are better third party alternatives that allow access from any type of hardware, not just another Mac. Plus there’s a lot of overhead on Apple’s part in being the connection middleman. I can completely understand why they dropped this feature. I would much rather see them invest in new features and/or performance improvements to the OS than maintaining wonky legacy features used by only a handful of people.
This article totally ignores that BTMM is about more than screen sharing. There are tons of alternatives for VNC style screen sharing. There aren’t very many good alternatives for accessing all the files on your Mac via finder, even when on a different network, especially when you don’t have complete admin access to configure either your home network or the one you are attempting to access from. BTMM handled this with aplomb, and with virtually no configuration needed either. LogMeIn and Parallels Access do have features for accessing files in such a manner, but in my experience have been quite flaky in this regard. Especially if you want to access files on drives other than the boot volume.
Also, none of these solutions can match the integration of BTMM. BTMM allowed one to access all these services right in the finder. It basically made it so that accessing your macs remotely was as simple as if they were still on your local network. No other service can replicate that functionality. Screen sharing is only one use case where BTMM is useful. That doesn’t paint the whole picture.
This article totally ignores that BTMM is about more than screen sharing. There are tons of alternatives for VNC style screen sharing. There aren’t very many good alternatives for accessing all the files on your Mac via finder, even when on a different network, especially when you don’t have complete admin access to configure either your home network or the one you are attempting to access from. BTMM handled this with aplomb, and with virtually no configuration needed either. LogMeIn and Parallels Access do have features for accessing files in such a manner, but in my experience have been quite flaky in this regard. Especially if you want to access files on drives other than the boot volume.
Also, none of these solutions can match the integration of BTMM. BTMM allowed one to access all these services right in the finder. It basically made it so that accessing your macs remotely was as simple as if they were still on your local network. No other service can replicate that functionality. Screen sharing is only one use case where BTMM is useful. That doesn’t paint the whole picture.
Yeah, but here's the thing. BTTM departs in Mojave, whether we want it to or not. BTTM worked great if you had just the right router, and just the right network conditions. It didn't work if you didn't, and you were out of luck if you were relying on it when you were away from your bits. Better options for file access were available to consumers after BTTM launched, and I think that's why Apple is removing the feature.
I understand what you're saying, and I know why -- but it doesn't change the root problem.
Does anyone remember screen sharing in iChat over AIM? That was truly the only simple, reliable and trouble-free remote control/viewing I've seen. So simple your grandmother could use it. I don't understand why Apple has to go backwards in any area. Getting rid of BTMM should've been an opportunity to do something better, not give up. This seems to be a pattern lately. I guess Apple does have to be selective in where to put it's extremely limited resources ... oh wait!
Does anyone remember screen sharing in iChat over AIM? That was truly the only simple, reliable and trouble-free remote control/viewing I've seen. So simple your grandmother could use it. I don't understand why Apple has to go backwards in any area. Getting rid of BTMM should've been an opportunity to do something better, not give up. This seems to be a pattern lately. I guess Apple does have to be selective in where to put it's extremely limited resources ... oh wait!
The exact same feature exists in Messages. It's also not the same thing as BTMM, which is meant to access other Macs using your same iCloud account versus screen sharing with others as in AIM or Messages.
I've been using VNC for years to remote control, from my main Win PC, a Mac Mini that's used as the "digital front end" to my 2 channel stereo. (Mainly running JRiver Media Center to play ripped CDs, and Tidal app for streaming.) Mojave has made things impossible lately. After the initial Mojave upgrade broke VNC, I searched and figured out how to add permissions for the vnc agent on the Mini and it mostly worked for a few weeks. However lately I have to reboot the Mini nearly every time I have to reconnect, to get a connection. Since the connection won't stay open that means every day or two. I may try Screens.
"TeamViewer, for instance, comes with a free edition for personal use before going on to subscription starting at just $40 per machine per year."
That's $40 per machine per MONTH now, $480 a year! You're allowed to access the one machine from up to 3 different machines. Or you can have unlimited machines for only $1200 a year.
Comments
Apple provides basic RDS screen sharing for free too so no need to fret about that. ARD is a enterprise tool to push settings, updates, applications and generate reports on system setup, software,and hardware config. Back to my Mac allowed for multiple macs to find each other over the internet, through firewalls and routers with zero configuration. It is freaking magic. Essentially, each Mac registers its ip with iCloud and shares it with all other macs so that when you connect it opens a vpn tunnel between the two systems and magic. That is what we will miss.
Screen Sharing can work remotely but only in more complicated ways like with a known IP and port forwarding or mapped to a domain/subdomain etc but isn't limited to Macs logged into the same iCloud account.
Relatedly -- these "remote control" apps are a no-brainer line of attack against a computer. I'm leery of any solution from a third party, particularly a small third party that charges nothing.
This is the type of functionality that ought to be provided by Apple. Microsoft provides this kind of functionality on Windows --
Apple definitely should do the same. More generally, Apple (and Microsoft) ought to provide strong first-party solutions for everything that involves the control and security of a computer -- those are fundamental, core features of an OS these days. We should not have to depend on third parties with unclear incentives for things like virus protection, remote control solutions, computer management, etc. Basically, anything that cannot work well in a sandbox ought to be provided by Apple (or Microsoft for Windows().
I guess the reason why I have never used it is…
1. When I’m out, 99% of the time I’m taking iPad.
2. My Mac mini which is the only machine I want to connect to when I’m away is not signed in to my iCloud account.
When I’m at home it’s easy to connect to this Mac from my MacBook Air through Screen Sharing so I have never bothered with Back To My Mac. Now if there is Back To My Mac on iPad that will be awesome.
https://www.bomgar.com/
Full VNC + file access right from a browser, without having to install anything on the client side, which means you can remotely access your mac (or Windows, or Linux machine) from any computer without having to download an app or an extension on the computer which is in your hand. Also, it's free and open source
Back to my Mac was essentially a DynDNS solution piped thru a VPN to made any mac bind to the account reachable even behind a firewall. For me Back to my Mac wasn't a screen sharing solution or a merely file sharing, it's way to reach any IPv6 service (AFP, VNC, SSH, LDAP, etc) on a remote computer thru its bonjour name.
Also, none of these solutions can match the integration of BTMM. BTMM allowed one to access all these services right in the finder. It basically made it so that accessing your macs remotely was as simple as if they were still on your local network. No other service can replicate that functionality. Screen sharing is only one use case where BTMM is useful. That doesn’t paint the whole picture.
I understand what you're saying, and I know why -- but it doesn't change the root problem.