[Macpartners] Remote Access for Clients

[Helen Rose]

On Jul 28, 2008, at 14:46 EDT, Douglas Alan wrote:

> Brian Bulmer <bbulmer at MIT.EDU> wrote:
>
>> After setting this up, you can now remotely control your Mac with any
>> free VNC viewer (e.g. Chicken of the VNC), running on Mac OS X or any
>> other OS. Chicken of the VNC seems to work the best with default
>> settings, be sure you record your work computers IP.
>
> I've tried this at times, but have found the performance to be
> unbearable.  Performance with the Apple Remote Desktop client is much
> better.  It costs a pretty penny, though.
>

"pretty penny"? $300 for the unlimited client version of the software  
($150 for 10-client), with an educational discount. Although I guess  
it depends if you're buying it for you or for your department. For me,  
the $300 is pittance considering I use the software to manage ~130  
machines.

You too can install software packages remotely, force machines to  
reboot, run tasks at specified times, gather audit information (e.g.  
serial numbers). ARD makes it easy.