10.5: Screen share with multiple Macs behind one NAT

Aug 07, '09 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

After searching for a way to change the port that Apple Remote Desktop connects over (so I could use Screen Sharing to reach two machines behind the same NAT router), I found that in Screen Sharing, you can specify a port for a connection, just like you can do in Chicken of the VNC. So, to manage multiple computers:

  1. Port forward a different port to your second, third, etc. machines. That is, port forward external port 5901 to internal port 5900.
  2. Open the ScreenSharing app, in /System » Library » CoreServices.
  3. Enter your Domain Name and Port: mydomain.com:5901, for instance, for the second port.
That's it -- off you go to the specified machine on the described port. I did have issues with Keychain remembering which username and password to use if you have different accounts on each box. I found that setting up domain aliases for each machine solved this -- i.e. server01.mydomain.com:5901, server02.mydomain.com:5902, etc.

Also, a great shortcut to remember is that you can simply type vnc://server01.mydomain.com:5901 into Safari, and it will launch the ScreenSharing app and connect. Likewise, you can bookmark these URLs (which I do to manage my computer list).

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