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My configurations to access Mac mini (Leopard) from my MacBook Pro (Leopard) at home are:

  • Mac mini: Apple remote desktop enabled with VNC viewers flagged

  • MacBook Pro: Jollyfast VNC

I find this configuration too slow for my cabled LAN (100Mbit) and I'm searching for a better software solution.

What is a recommended way to remotely control your Mac Mini from your Macbook Pro at home?

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  • Have you tried the built-in Screen Sharing client?
    – Chealion
    Sep 8, 2010 at 16:16
  • @Chealion yep, but it is uglier than vnc client.
    – systempuntoout
    Sep 8, 2010 at 18:06

3 Answers 3

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Is your Mac Mini Intel-based? If so, then it, along with your MacBook Pro, has gigabit ethernet. My suggestion would be to get some cat 5e or cat 6 cables and a gigabit switch. Still, I personally use Apple's "Screen Sharing" remote desktop client and server built into Mac OS X, and it works fine, and has acceptable performance even over wifi (or remotely through Mobile Me).

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  • It's the first model of Mac Mini (G4), up and running since 2005!
    – systempuntoout
    Sep 8, 2010 at 12:58
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I found VNC to be fast enough for all I wanted. What exactly do you want to do on the remote machine?

For a more-remote-than-LAN scenario the points to consider are:

  • color depth and encoding: try to use 16-bit color or less and/or "tight" encoding on the client.
  • security: you should not use "plain" VNC authentication that sends the password in the clear on the internet. Use either Apples Remote Access authentication or tunnel VNC through SSH (you can set compression on the SSH tunnel).

I regularly use either OSX "Screen Sharing" without VNC password with the OSX Screen Sharing client (Cmd-K vnc://my.host.name) or VNC tunneled through SSH with Vine Server set to localhost-only and Jollys Fast VNC as client.

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  • it depends on what you mean with fast enough. I surely can do what I need to do (my Mac Mini is a sort of download station). Anyway I use windows terminal service at office and it's another story, you don't really notice any differences between a local machine or a remote machine.
    – systempuntoout
    Sep 8, 2010 at 18:11
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why not installing LogMeIn Free?

I work with it and it's lovely, not only I can access my Mini from home as well I can get it from anywhere in the world.

install LogMeIn Free in your mini, and they access it through Firefox.

I hope it helps

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