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I like to access my Mac from work (Linux) and I wonder if it is possible without installing additional software like TeamViewer or ChickenVNC. I also noticed somewhere that it is possible to wake my Mac via WiFi. What is needed for that (Mac has to be plugged in? Do I have to be in the same Network?) and how do I do it?

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  • This should be two questions 1) remote access(VNC is built into Mac) and 2) wake on WiFi
    – mmmmmm
    Commented Mar 4, 2013 at 9:26
  • I will recommend some other solutions like GoToMyPC or LogMeIn. VNC works like, well, crap over Internet, at least for me. Also, your company might block or limit speed of VNC. Solutions like LogMeIn are more stable. Or if you're a pro, SSH. Works like a charm!
    – Shane Hsu
    Commented Mar 4, 2013 at 11:42
  • After disabling the firewall it worked for me. After that I found apple.stackexchange.com/questions/112046/…
    – Günter Zöchbauer
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 13:49

2 Answers 2

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You can take either one of the following two approach:

1. VNC

This is pretty simple, you'll need to go to System Preferences → Screen Sharing and then click on Computer Settings. From there you can select VNC viewers may control screen with password: and supply a password.

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2. Wi-Fi Wakeup

Go to System Preferences → Energy Saver. You can only do this with the Mac running on power (if it's a portable). You'll need to enable an option tick called Wake for Wi-Fi network access.

enter image description here

OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 Problem

If you're running this release of OS X Mountain Lion, you may find this doesn't work.

Q:

No Wake-on-LAN possible since updating to ML

Hi everybody,

since updating from OS X 10.7 to 10.8 (clean install), Wake-on-LAN does not work anymore. Setup: Mac mini (Early 2011) connected to Time Capsule (2nd gen) via devolo dLAN. Mac mini goes to sleep after 30 minutes and eventually disappears from the network. Sending Wake-On-LAN packets or using Back To My Mac fail, it simply won't wake up.

Wake-on-LAN worked smoothly under 10.7 after some problems. Any ideas?

Thanks and regards

Steffen

However, OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 fixed this.

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  • Thanks. I'll try that! And no problem for me with a developer account :) Can I also use screen sharing to get access to my Linux workstation?
    – DaPhil
    Commented Mar 4, 2013 at 10:42
  • No, you'll need a VNC client for that.
    – sgtbeano
    Commented Mar 4, 2013 at 11:08
  • May I ask another question: How do I wake up my Mac? Do I have to do additional stuff or does it work right away when I try to establish a connection?
    – DaPhil
    Commented Mar 6, 2013 at 10:46
  • It think it depends on your router, I know with mine I have to forward WOL requests to a specific client IP using a setting in my router's firmware and also port forwarding.
    – sgtbeano
    Commented Mar 6, 2013 at 14:40
  • I was wrong in my first comment, you can use the built in screen sharing to access any other OS which has a VNC server. The easiet way to do this is to issue CMD+K when you're in finder to open the 'Connect to Server' dialog. Then just typ 'VNC://IP or Name' where IP or Name is either the IP of the machine you want to connect to, or the FQD of the machine.
    – sgtbeano
    Commented Jun 3, 2013 at 11:43
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Ubuntu has community wiki guide for the matter https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AppleRemoteDesktop

Setting up the Mac to be Accessed Remotely

On the Mac:

  1. Open System Preferences (it's in the Apple menu)
  2. Open the Sharing panel
  3. Check the box Apple Remote Desktop
  4. Click Access Privileges
  5. Check the box VNC viewers may control screen with password, and enter a password
  6. Click OK

Accessing the Mac From Ubuntu

On Ubuntu:

  1. Launch Remmina Remote Desktop Client
  2. Select Connection > New from menu
  3. Select VNC - Virtual Network Computing as Protocol
  4. Fill Server field with either IP address or hostname of the Mac
  5. Optionally fill both User name and Password to make Remmina remember Your credentials
  6. IMPORTANT: Set Color depth to High color (15 bit) or better, otherwise connection will fail
  7. Click Connect (or Save to reuse it later)

Your Mac's desktop should appear on your screen.

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  • 3
    > IMPORTANT: Set Color depth to High color (15 bit) or better, otherwise connection will fail This is why it was failing for me, thanks a ton!
    – Harendra Singh
    Commented Jan 29, 2019 at 2:57
  • Can't believe this would work - NAT would probably get in the way.
    – Snowcrash
    Commented Nov 10, 2022 at 21:22
  • @Snowcrash NAT and VPN work at different levels in OSI layers. As long as you configure your network correctly the above step will work and configuring network correctly is out of scope for this (Ubuntu wiki) guide as there can be too many different scenarios.
    – Tun
    Commented Nov 14, 2022 at 16:12

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