Can my Mac take over my PC?
I will ask the question in plain english, and also in the words that my network guy at work said to ask:
ENGLISH: I have a mac book pro at home. I want to use it to take over my work computer, which is a PC, and have all the graphical controls, access, etc.., that my work computer would have as if I were actually sitting at my desk at work.
COMPUTER-ESE: Apparently, I want to VPN into a windows domain network and take over a PC by remote control.
Is there a software solution for this? I know that one option would be to use boot-camp to turn my mac into a PC, but what's the fun in that? I want to keep my mac a mac at all times, but use it to get into work if necessary...
Please answer the question in english if possible, which is my primitive brain's native operating system.
Thanks for any input you may have!
ENGLISH: I have a mac book pro at home. I want to use it to take over my work computer, which is a PC, and have all the graphical controls, access, etc.., that my work computer would have as if I were actually sitting at my desk at work.
COMPUTER-ESE: Apparently, I want to VPN into a windows domain network and take over a PC by remote control.
Is there a software solution for this? I know that one option would be to use boot-camp to turn my mac into a PC, but what's the fun in that? I want to keep my mac a mac at all times, but use it to get into work if necessary...
Please answer the question in english if possible, which is my primitive brain's native operating system.
Thanks for any input you may have!
Comments
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COMPUTER-ESE: Apparently, I want to VPN into a windows domain network and take over a PC by remote control.
Is there a software solution for this? I know that one option would be to use boot-camp to turn my mac into a PC, but what's the fun in that? I want to keep my mac a mac at all times, but use it to get into work if necessary...
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Just after the scorpions came on land, Timbuktu® Pro went from Mac-only to cross-platform. During the Polk Administration, Symantec introduced a Mac version of Symantec pcAnywhere. Either one should do what you want.
Just after the scorpions came on land, Timbuktu® Pro went from Mac-only to cross-platform. During the Polk Administration, Symantec introduced a Mac version of Symantec pcAnywhere. Either one should do what you want.
Hey thanks for the suggestion...either Timbuktu Pro or pcAnywhere will do both things, the VPN and the "take over the computer" parts?
Is one particularly better than the other? Will software need to be put on my work computer to complete the process?
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Is one particularly better than the other? Will software need to be put on my work computer to complete the process?
I would go with Timbuktu because it originated on the Mac. However, it has been available for Windows long enough to understand the ins and outs of the platform. Of course, you must install software on any computer you want to use it with. If it were possible to use it otherwise, then VNC software would be a terrible security threat and an outright nuisance.
If your PC is at work I'm going to assume you have at least one of the "decent" Windows OS's on it. You should be able to enable Remote Desktop on your work computer. Do a search for "enable remote desktop" and what ever version of windows you have for instructions to do that. Then visit mactopia.com to download Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection application. Nothing like using free software provided by the vendor in their supported platform with no additional install on the work machine.
Now for your VPN. You'll need to talk to your network admins to find out what kind of VPN server they're running. If it's a Cisco VPN they should be able to provide you with the Cisco client for your machine (make sure they get the latest one) and any config info you need. Otherwise you can try the built in VPN in OS X. Once again your network admins will need to provide any info you need to connect (along with the connection type). Apple's Help should explain how to do this on your machine.
One extra note, make sure you're allowed to do this where you work. At my former employer we NEVER allowed normal employees to connect to their work machine remotely. It was able to do it but we were the only ones. Many companies consider this a serious breach of their security!
Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection.
Download the OSX client on your Mac. And turn on remote connection on the PC.
It's very usable.
C.
There's a better solution:
Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection.
Download the OSX client on your Mac. And turn on remote connection on the PC.
It's very usable.
C.
I think that's what I just said, I even underlined it now...
COMPUTER-ESE: Apparently, I want to VPN into a windows domain network and take over a PC by remote control.
Depending on how your work has the network configured, you may need a specific VPN client. If your company uses Cisco VPN software, your network guy should be able to download the OS X version from Cisco.com for free -- note that only registered customers with current support contracts can get to that download area. He would want to look for something with a .dmg extension (it won't mean squat to him but its a mountable Mac disk image), the one you'd want will have the word "universal" in the name, IIRC the filename also says darwin not OS X.
Edit: Oh, and you'd need the same profile files that the Windows VPN client uses. He'll know what that means.
I think that's what I just said, I even underlined it now...
Oops so you did.
:-)
C.