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With Apple about to discontinue Back to my Mac, the substitute that would best fill my needs is Apple Remote Desktop.
I observe that ARD is not cheap, and its rating on the Apple store is abysymally bad. Apparently version 3.8 was much more stable than the current version 3.9.
Current users of ARD, knowing what you know now, would you buy this product?
iMac 27", macOS 10.12
I don’t see BTTM and ARD as being particularly related and they’re not really intended for the same tasks, and there’s little or no difference between ARD and the built-in screen sharing client for what seems to be the intended usage here.
ARD is for managing fleets of Macs, including pushing out updates, and pushing put command-line commands. ARD can provide screen sharing, but that’s just one of its features. That one screen-sharing feature is entirely equivalent to what the free, and already-integrated screen-sharing app client also provides.
ARD works fine. Yes, there’ve been bugs from time to time, too.
But for remote access from another network and akin to what BTTM provides, and provides transparently, the ARD administrator needs to understand IP networking and IP security to use it remotely, and ro have privileged network access to the associated firewall. Want to learn IP networking and/or VPNs and firewall administration? Use ARD.
Understanding networking? That’s why I keep getting to answer that question. Around how to set up remote access via VPN or port-forwarding. And the security issues and trade-offs of each. Go search for my previous replies.
TeamViewer and ilk are much closer to what BTTM provides and in the way most folks envision, and require less knowledge of IP networking, and can usually work in networks where the user does not have privileged access to the local network firewall.
I don’t see BTTM and ARD as being particularly related and they’re not really intended for the same tasks, and there’s little or no difference between ARD and the built-in screen sharing client for what seems to be the intended usage here.
ARD is for managing fleets of Macs, including pushing out updates, and pushing put command-line commands. ARD can provide screen sharing, but that’s just one of its features. That one screen-sharing feature is entirely equivalent to what the free, and already-integrated screen-sharing app client also provides.
ARD works fine. Yes, there’ve been bugs from time to time, too.
But for remote access from another network and akin to what BTTM provides, and provides transparently, the ARD administrator needs to understand IP networking and IP security to use it remotely, and ro have privileged network access to the associated firewall. Want to learn IP networking and/or VPNs and firewall administration? Use ARD.
Understanding networking? That’s why I keep getting to answer that question. Around how to set up remote access via VPN or port-forwarding. And the security issues and trade-offs of each. Go search for my previous replies.
TeamViewer and ilk are much closer to what BTTM provides and in the way most folks envision, and require less knowledge of IP networking, and can usually work in networks where the user does not have privileged access to the local network firewall.
ARD and Back-To-My-Mac are sorta-kinda similar, but not as much as some folks might expect or might want.
BTMM particularly deals with the remote network path. ARD does not.
If you’re asking this, then the built-in screen-sharing app will probably do just as well as ARD, particularly if you’re centrally looking for screen sharing. ARD has other capabilities useful for managing herds of macOS systems. Same issues around opening up inbound remote access directly or via VPN apply to both, too. Fun with firewalls, and with keeping the riffraff from ravaging your remote access, etc.
I’ve made more than a few postings on remote access via screen sharing and ARD, too. My nick here, with ARD and VPN will locate many of those postings.
Well I've been using BTMM, orginally remotely, from Sweden or Japan to Canada, but recently just in my home network. My immediate needs are 1) I want to be able to control my iMac's desktop from a MacBook Air, and 2) I want to be able to copy files from one Mac to another.
Theres no way I'm going to put all my files on iCloud just so I can transfer a few files.
I'll check out your other postings.
In your own opinion does ARD's bad rep come from it being a complex tool or is it buggy or unstable?
Thanks for the useful description.
Apple’s message to those with BTMM lists ARD as one of the possible replacements. I thought I would look before leaping.
I could learn enough about IP networking given my background as a telecom engineer for a few decades (mostly in radio) but not if I don’t have to.
It sounds like for now I can get what I need from Screen sharing and file sharing, and that won’t be affected by BTMM.
If I end up travelling again, then I’ll look at team viewer and whatever is equivalent then.
If you’re all on the same network behind the same firewall and not performing remote-network access—and which in aggregate really isn’t the BTMM target, that’s really for folks looking for that remote access—both the in-build screen sharing client and ARD can work for screen sharing. Start out with screen sharing. If you need more than that, there’s always ARD.
Would you buy Apple Remote Desktop Again?
