Some Apple Remote Desktop client features
May 10, '05 08:55:00AM
Contributed by: victory
It appears that the Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) client service is now installed by default in 10.4. Previously one had to download and install it manually. As such, a number of previously posted hints (see below) regarding ARD now become relevant to a much wider audience.
- As noted in this hint, the great thing about the ARD client is that it can be set to accept standard VNC (Virtual Network Computing) connections.
- The ARD-related commands systemsetup and networksetup found in /System: Library: CoreServices: RemoteManagement: ARDAgent.app: Contents: Support (described in this hint and in this webcast) are also present. Try systemsetup -h or networksetup -h for more info.
- As noted by another poster, the embedded ARD VNC server is a bit sluggish compared to other versions such as OSXVnc. Still, it's kind of neat that every copy of 10.4 now comes with a bundled VNC server. I can see this being of great value when attempting to do emergency remote troubleshooting.
- Note I said 'emergency' troubleshooting in the last point. You really shouldn't be doing plain, unencrypted VNC connections via Internet if you can avoid it. OSXVnc has a nice feature that will only allow SSH-tunneled connections. I don't believe the ARD VNC server has a similar option.
- Finally, the consensus seems to be that one of the better Windows VNC clients for use with ARD/OSXVnc is the open-sourced TightVNC. What I really like about this package is that there's a standalone viewer app (it's just a single .EXE, no need to install the entire server package on the PC) available. On the OS X side, a popular VNC client that works well with ARD/OSXVnc is Chicken of the VNC
[robg adds: For secure VNC use, we ran a hint yesterday that describes how to set up a secure tunnel using SSH. This hint isn't Tiger-only, as you can install the same client on 10.3 systems...]
Comments (14)
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20050502171842237