Rdesktop *into* a mac
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There's only one mac in my office. We keep it around so that we can make sure webpages we create work in safari. I'm about to have to walk over there and check out a page.
Isn't there some way that I can just remote into the mac?? omfg, you mean I have to walk 10 feet? wtf?
anyway, I googled and found a remote desktop client, but no server so I thought I would ask here.
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What you should do is move the Mac into the basement, so that when you check the pages, you can catch a quick nap afterward.
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OSX-VNC server on the mac.
RealVNC viewer on your pcs.
Click, done.
We got a mac mini for the exact same reasons and until I found out about the VNC, I kept switching screens manually.
Keep a keyboard + mouse + screen around for it. You will not be able to VNC all the time, such as when the mac reboots, finds no monitor attached and VNC server will not output anything.
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PS.
I'm posting this particular post at home, through VPN, via VNC, from the Mac.
Great stuff!
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@dhromed said:
PS.
I'm posting this particular post at home, through VPN, via VNC, from the Mac.
Great stuff!
Is it fast enough to be tolerable now? The last time I used VNC it was dog slow, even on a switched 100mb/s network with almost no other traffic. RDP is practically like sitting at the machine itself.
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@HitScan said:
@dhromed said:
PS.
I'm posting this particular post at home, through VPN, via VNC, from the Mac.
Great stuff!
Is it fast enough to be tolerable now? The last time I used VNC it was dog slow, even on a switched 100mb/s network with almost no other traffic. RDP is practically like sitting at the machine itself.
By my experience, VNC is faster with a unix server than with a windows server. I don't know how a Mac is doing; technically it's a unix box, but since X is not its native GUI, it is much likely different.
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It's like playing a game at 10 fps, if I connect at the office. If I connect from home, through VPN, it's not much worse for some reason, and still very workable. I'm not downplaying the colour depth to gain some speed or anything.
But don't expect anything like total smooth playback as though you were actually at the machine. That's not gonna happen.
And for the record, I've [i]never[/i] had that "on the machine" feeling with RDP either, even with some bandwidth-saving options set. AndAlso, RDP !== VNC. VNC is more closely to a direct output of the video card, while RDP is more instruction-based. RDP allows you to change the resolution of your window, as well as go truly fullscreen. VNC does not allow for that--that is, not the client I'm using anyway. I don't now if that matters or if it's really the protocol.
I've also installed the RDP client for OSX on the Mac.
Sometimes when I feel mischievous, I connect to the mac, then to our development server [i]through[/i] the mac. Strangely, it's not much different from RDP-ing directly.
A coworker of mine once RDP's through four levels of servers, and we started speculation on whether or not that portion of the universe would collapse if the fifth would be an RDP back onto the first server.
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RDP can do that resolution trick because it's more like X forwarding than screen scaping, which as far as I know, is all VNC can do. A VNC server's resolution is set when it's started.
What's really entertaining is when you RDP into something, then use VNC to connect to a unix machine that you use to ssh -X into another machine to run an app remotely on the VNC'd X server. I still haven't taken the time to play with something as messy as that, but I've got enough machines at the house in case I decide it needs to be tried. :D
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You set it up, then quietly back out and observe the Infinite Ping Loop.
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@HitScan said:
RDP can do that resolution trick because it's more like X forwarding than screen scaping, which as far as I know, is all VNC can do. A VNC server's resolution is set when it's started.
What's really entertaining is when you RDP into something, then use VNC to connect to a unix machine that you use to ssh -X into another machine to run an app remotely on the VNC'd X server. I still haven't taken the time to play with something as messy as that, but I've got enough machines at the house in case I decide it needs to be tried. :D
The other way - VNC (on a PC used as X terminal) into one box, then Citrix to another - is something I regulary do (remote maintenance), and (surprisingly) it works even reasonably well.
