I’ve found two better options for quick and dirty VNC access to your Mac.

1. PocketCloud Remote Desktop – Free version is limited in that you can only create one configuration (in other words, connect only to one computer). In order to access a different computer, you need to reconfigure the connection entry (change the host name). Aside from that, you have full functionality. Biggest issue I’ve found is that it occasionally drops the connection.

2. LogMeIn – (I see an ad for this on the page with the article…!) This requires a server portion to be installed on your Mac, but the benefit is that once it’s installed, you can access your desktop through the Internet without having to know your IP address or have a DNS name to connect to. The basic client and server seem to be free and I’m not aware of any real limitations on it. My biggest issue with this is that the “mouse pointer” seems to be funky; I’m constantly positioning it wrong, but that could be my fat fingers or something.

Both of these options give you better remote access than the Mocha VNC Lite app suggested in this article, and both are free, and if you wish to reimburse the developers, you can always pay for the full client when you’ve settled on one.

If you know your going to be using your Mac this way remotely often, I suggest getting in the habit of dropping your home computers screen resolution. People are going to cringe, but 1024×768 will make for a snappier screen update then 2880×1800. Even 1280×1024 or there abouts would be better.

Keep in mind that what’s getting sent is basically a stream of compressed Jepg images. The smaller those images are more you can send/receive and the faster your remote screens display will refresh.

Although I’m not sure Mocha is the right choice if you want to use an iPhone. You need one that uses a fake mouse pad mode rather then a touch based one.

If anyone reading this gets close to an Apple Dev, please please please yack their ear off about this topic. I can get any iOS device without an A5 chip or better having issues not being able to do this, but anything that can handle AirPlay should be able to. If an A5X can push a retina screen it can send a sequence shrunk and compressed images over the network to an Admin computer.

In a home or school networked environment no one is going to care about a bit of battery loss from the nearly always live connection. We who have the dubious task of monitoring children (be us parents or teachers) need every last tool we can get.

It doesn’t even need to be the full quality of the screen, it could be compressed and the overall resolution shrunk before being transmitted. I would love to be able to keep a classroom set of 20 to 30 iPads on rotating display through Apple Remote Desktop.

If not look down the list further and check to see if Remote Management is checked. There are two ways to handle remote access on Macs, Screen Sharing and Remote Management. Remote Management is more robust and intend to be used with Apple Remote Desktop and Apple Server management.

Again if you are not the admin and Remote Management is checked. Just click on it to highlight it and look at the “Allow access for:”. If you don’t see your name click the + button and add your user ID from the list. Click on options and make sure Observer and Control are at least clicked. Now that most “VNC” Apps for iOS are able to use MacOSX user IDs as the login you don’t need to go to the Computer Settings button and add a VNC password there. Just follow the steps in the guide above as normal.

You may also need to dig into your VNC client app and see if they have a setting for WOL, which will likely need your computer’s MAC address.

It is possible if you have a newer Mac it supports WOL over WiFi… but I’ve found that flakey and unreliable personally.

When it falls asleep it cannot be awaken remotely….