Screens 4Įdovia Screens 4 allows for Desktop access (For around $30) with an optional remote internet access service called Screens Connect that takes care of all of the dirty connectivity work for you. If you're not the type to want to configure VPNs or firewalls to enable internet screen and file sharing access, you'll be happy to know that there do exist third party programs you can purchase that allow for Back to My Mac capabilities.

You can initiate a connection via finder from under the shared sidebar or via a VNC client such as TightVNC. You'll be sharing the screen of a Mac and as such any thing you do on that screen will be visible to both the local and remote user. Screen sharing is exactly what it sounds like. If you already have a method for connecting to your home/work network remotely such as via a VPN or through an ssh tunnel, then these built-in Apple provided methods will work just fine for you. If you do not have a statically assigned IP (which you can have depending on your ISP), you'll need a paid service such as Dyn DNS services to translate dynamic IPs to static names so that your remote computer can be found on the internet for you to connect to.Īnother issue is ensuring that the connections to your remote Mac can pass through firewalls and be properly routed to an internal network from the Internet. One issue is that of dynamically assigned IP addresses provided by your ISP. I'm placing the word remotely in quotes since this means that you Mac will have the ability to accept remote connections but will only be accessible from computers on the same network unless further somewhat complicated (and potentially insecure) configurations are made. To enable iCloud Drive, do the following.Īpple offers two already built-in tools to enable desktop access 'remotely'. iCloud Drive offers 5 GB of storage for free with more storage available for a fee.

iCloud Drive already allows you to edit and sync files automagically on Apple centric hardware but you can even get access from other platforms on. If you are up-to-date with the latest macOS and iOS revisions then you're likely already familiar with sharing files via iCloud Drive. Here are some alternatives to maintain connectivity to your remote Macs! Unfortunately, Apple pulled the plug on the Back to My Mac iCloud feature in all versions of macOS as of July 1. Whether you need to access files or control the desktop directly, Back to My Mac made it easy for an iCloud account user to get connected from anywhere. Back to My Mac is a subset of iCloud that allows a user to remotely access any Mac on the same iCloud account.

What is back to my mac on icoud