With Mac OS X Yosemite's built-in Sharing capabilities, using Secure Shell is easier than you may think. Enable your Mac's Remote Login feature to turn your Mac into an SSH server and access it remotely from another computer. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac This week we go cosmic, staring into the universal abyss of time, while simultaneously probing the depths of our iDevices using a new terminal app. Would you consider using the hostname instead of the MAC? You can 'ssh username@hostname.local' – Katu Jul 3 '15 at 11:34. Is it possible to log into a remote LAN user using the ssh client without using his password? Is it possible to ping a remote Linux machine without using ssh? I think that DameWare SSH is the best free ssh client. This free tool is a terminal emulator that lets you make multiple telnet and SSH connections from one easy-to-use console. Manage multiple sessions from one console with a tabbed interface. There is a difference between the standard SSH service (sshd) and Secure SSH as used in the Casper Suite. Secure SSH indicates that the user that you are creating in the Recon QuickAdd package or in the configuration is the only user that is able to SSH into the machine.

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Screens for Mac and iOS is the best remote access solution for accessing our Macs when away from home. It uses industry-standard technology for remote access (VNC), but the free Screens Connect service makes it easy to setup. This removes the requirement to use a static IP address or configure your router manually.

If your machine is behind a corporate network that prohibits Screens from working remotely, we recommend LogMeIn. The iOS and Mac apps are free, but the service is prohibitively expensive for most users.

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Why do you need remote access?

With the rise of services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud, remote access services aren’t necessary for simply accessing files remotely. There are countless ways to sync documents and access them from anywhere. Accessing a PDF file using PDF Expert that is stored in Dropbox is certainly better than remotely controlling a Mac and opening the document. I use remote access to manage a Mac mini at Mac mini colo and my Plex server at home. Accessing a Mac remotely allows you to run desktop applications, have access to a full web browser from iOS, and access files and programs that are only on that one machine.

Screens

How does it work?

Screens, at its core, is a VNC client. VNC stands for virtual networking computing. It was created by The Olivetti & Oracle Research Lab back in the late 90s. The lab was later purchased by AT&T, but shut down in 2002. The original VNC source code is now open source. With VNC apps, there are two pieces. You have the VNC server (typically a laptop, server, or desktop) and the VNC client (another laptop, desktop, or mobile device). The client generally connects to the server from port 5900 and allows the client to see the display of the VNC server. Screens is using industry-standard technology, but with an easy-to-use and beautiful user interface.

Design

Screens has stayed current, following Apple’s ever-changing design standards. Both apps received quick updates for the new iOS 7 design a couple years back. The iPhone and Mac apps share a lot of similar buttons and layout functions, so users of both apps can swap back and forth without having to re-learn workflows. The apps look for available machines on the local network, and also shows you the ones available with Screens Connect (more on that later). Double tapping/clicking on a machine launches it and either logs you in or prompts you for the passcode depending on how the security of that machine is setup.

Once you are logged into a machine, you are free to use it like you would just sitting in front of it. There is a dedicated Screenshot button, options to send/receive the clipboard, an option to scale down the display when network conditions are not optimal, and the ability to manage multiple displays if they are available.

On the Mac side, using a remote machine feels extremely normal. Both devices use a mouse and keyboard, so it’s fairly easy to implement that.

On the iOS side, you are taking a touch screen device and making it work with a desktop OS.

You quickly find out why Apple didn’t simply port Mac OS X as-is to the iPad. A touch-based OS requires drastically different interactions than a mouse/keyboard paradigm. With that being said, Screens offers the best experience in my opinion. It’s easy to zoom in and tapping moves the cursor to your desired location and initiates a click on the server. There is also an optional trackpad mode that turns your display into a trackpad and will make the cursor follow your finger around as you track. Both options work well, and it just comes down to personal preference.

Our friends at MacMini Colo discovered a great product to use on a remote Mac that is “headless” (a Mac mini or Mac Pro) in order to use higher resolutions. If you plug this dongle into the HDMI port, you’ll get access to all available resolutions up to 16×9 1080p.

Features

Since Screens is built on open source technology, it is probably always going to lose the feature check list game when compared to custom-built services like LogMeIn or TeamViewer. Companies that are building their own technology have the ability to do whatever their product managers can come up with. Screens is built on open-source VNC technology, so it’s going to be a much simpler design. Most of the extra features aren’t needed in 2015 for most people (remote printing, file syncing, etc) anyways. Screens offers exactly what I want out of remote access without a monthly fee.

Access Options

Screens is available for Mac OS X and for iOS. It does lack a web access component, so if that is a feature that you need, then you should look at one of the other options below. Web access used to be important to me, but that was before I had multiple iOS devices in my bag. I’ve actually found myself using Screens on my iPhone 6 Plus quite a bit, not to mention the extremely capable iPad version.

Setup

As I mentioned earlier, Screens is really just a beautiful VNC application. VNC server support is built into Mac OS X by default, and this app is just building a VNC client. The main downside with VNC, since it’s an open-source platform, is that the setup can generally be tricky. You have to make sure the computer is configured right, and you need a static IP from your internet provider (or use a service like No_IP to update your dynamic DNS to a static host).

Screens has a free service called Screens Connect that takes care of that for you. You create an account, install the Screens Connect app on the Mac you want to remotely access, and log in with your user name and password. On the client side, you simply log in with your Screens Connect account, and you see your logged in computers. The only place this service won’t work is when a corporate firewall is blocking VNC traffic. Screens also offers a free program called Screens Express that makes it easy to connect to a friend or family member’s Mac with a temporary link.

Reliability

In my experience, Screens has been rock solid. I bought it a few years back after LogMeIn discontinued their free service and haven’t looked back. Screens is really the best of both worlds. It’s pairing open-source technology that’s built right into Mac OS X with a well-supported and frequently updated app. On iOS, the developer has worked to add things like TouchID support, Touch Bar support, an adaptive toolbar and more. Regular updates help us feel more comfortable relying on this app day in and day out.

Runner Up

LogMeIn

LogMeIn ($249.99/year for two computers) is our runner up for remote access solutions. We also recommend it for the times when VNC technology is blocked or a corporate firewall prevents Screens Connect from working. LogMeIn is easy to install and easy to use. In fact, I use it on a few machines at work in order to always have easy access to them from offsite. LogMeIn allows me to keep my firewall locked down, but still get to these machines. It works from the web, but they also recently added a Mac client that is installed when you sign up. It allows

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