Back to my Mac, iChat work around
Melvin Rivera posted a great work around to get “Back To My Mac” style remote acceptability to your various Leopard Macs. This is directed at non-.Mac users, however .Mac user like my self and Robert who have yet to actually get BTMM to work can take advantage as well. I have been using this method for a few days and it works like a charm!
Follow the directions and you should be in business, And don’t skip the privacy step… that could potentially end badly!
What you will need:
I got back to my mac working this morning. Upgrading all comps to 10.5.1 and connecting to my work computer through the office’s airport extreme did the trick. Can’t connect the other way though. I think my home’s old airport router is the problem.
Comment by Robert — November 21, 2007 @ 3:42 pm
I got BTMM working from a 10.5.1 Intel iMac (directly behind a RoadRunner cable modem in Ventura, CA) to a 10.5.1 G4 Mac Mini located in Santa Barbara behind a COX cable modem and an older MR814v2 Netgear wireless router (the Mini’s screen was displayed on the iMadc’s screen). I then was able to use the screen sharing to connect from the Mini back to the iMac, and share a Public Folder on the iMac. I then dragged a file from the Mini into the shared Public Folder’s drop box. I then disconnected the shared folder connection, and quit screen sharing. Back on the iMac, I found the relevant file in the Drop Box. Wonderful!
But when I got back to Santa Barbara, I could not see the iMac in the list of “Share” devices. I suspected the Netgear router, so I removed it and connected directly to my cable modem. Still can’t see the iMac as a Share device. But if I run iChat, I do see the iChat client running on the iMac, and can video connect to it (I have anauto-accept hack configured on the iMac).
Something tells me the .Mac code that handles the registration of devices sharing the same .Mac account is flakey.
Comment by Steve Johnson — December 2, 2007 @ 6:20 pm
Correction (I lied a bit): when I got back to Santa Barbara, I actually used an iBook G4 running 10.5.1; from the iBook, the iMac in Ventura was not listed among the “Shared” devices. But in fact the iMac is listed among the Shared devices on the Mac mini.
So my real question is why the iMac is only showing up on the mini.
The iBook shows up as a shared device on the mini, and vice versa.
But the iMac does not show up. Again, I’d like to understand how devices are registered and advertised by the .Mac service.
Comment by Steve Johnson — December 2, 2007 @ 7:21 pm
Duh! The iBook was not signed in to the .Mac account. This had something to do with a bogus message that claimed I was not connected to the Internet the first time I tried to connect to .Mac (I was most certainly connected to the Internet, and able to make iChat video calls). But I did not follow up on that warning, and was apparently not signed in (even though a button invited me to sign out!). So I signed out, then signed in, and now the iBook can also see the iMac and share its screen. It actually seems to work!
Now to assess the security risks.
Comment by Steve Johnson — December 2, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
I have pretty much given up on this. Its funky at best :(
I recently invested in an apple router for the house hoping for the legit way to rule my world but its not reliable enough to start leaving things at home…. my poor back. I can see this be ing pretty amazing when the kinks are worked out, but for now I just don’t think BTMM can be trusted when you really NEED it to work.
Comment by Greg — February 15, 2008 @ 6:26 pm
BABY GIRL:
How have you been?
Comment by KEEHNAN — March 8, 2008 @ 4:09 pm