Connect PC to Mac OSX via VNC Remote Desktop

In the office we have a Mac OSX Leopard server as well as a Windows 2003 server. I use a PC most of the time so the obvious choice for remote administration of the Windows server is Remote Desktop, but what about the Mac OSX Leopard server?

There is a Mac Remote Desktop client if you need to access a PC from a Mac but Apple does not make a PC version of their Apple Remote Desktop. You can however use a VNC client to access a Mac OSX Leopard server from a PC or any other OS that has a VNC client.

Requirements

• Mac OSX Leopard Server
• PuTTY 0.52 or later
• UltraVNC

Setup the built-in Screen Sharing

1. Log into your Mac OSX Leopard and turn on Screen Sharing, it can be found in System Preferences > Internet and Network >Sharing. Turn on Screen Sharing and click on the Computer Settings button and check the VNC viewers may control screen with password option and set a password. Screen Sharing is a similar to logging on with remote desktop to a console session.

2. Download your favorite VNC client I tried TightVNC and UltraVNC. I found UltraVNC to be a little quicker, I did get quite a few disconnects with both clients.
3. At this point it’s a good time to consider network security. VNC is considered insecure, if you are connecting over the Internet to your Mac OSX server, it is recommended you create a SSH tunnel for your VNC session. Unlike Mac OSX windows does not come with a SSH client do download and install the Putty SSH Client.
4. Configure Putty SSH client to create a SSH tunnel.
5. If your network runs a firewall you will need to create a port forward through the firewall to the server.
6. If you are using the SSH tunnel open Putty and log on to the Mac OSX server and connect your VNC client to localhost.

Summary

Using VNC to administer your Mac OSX is easy with VNC. I did find however it is still substantially slower than a Remote Desktop session. I found a suggestion on the Internet that using the Vine Server can improve the speed of the connection.

I’m going to give Vine Server a try.