far away mac » Permission

Enable Screen Sharing or ARD Via SSH

Brian Stucki — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:48:40 +0000

Whenever I set up a new Mac mini in the data center (or help someone set up their own to send in) I’ll always suggest to have “Remote Login” enabled whether they regularly use SSH or not. The reason for this is it gives you a second way in if you were to lock yourself out by turning off Apple Remote Desktop or Leopard’s Screen Sharing. It’s easy to do.

For Apple Remote Desktop 3.2 (all one line):

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/
Contents/Resources/kickstart -configure -allowAccessFor -allUsers -privs -all

For earlier versions of Apple Remote Desktop, Apple has a nice document here.

For Leopard’s Screen Sharing:

$ cd /Library/Preferences
$ echo -n enabled > com.apple.ScreenSharing.launchd

(Thanks to this great hint on MacOSXHints.com.)

File Serving In Leopard

Brian Stucki — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:48:52 +0000

Lately, we have had a lot of new customers who want to use their Mac minis as file servers. Often the case is someone who wants an FTP server for access to all of their documents while on the road. Others have customers who they offer file storage to for a monthly fee. Because our network is very, very fast, these customers can grab their files much quicker than if they were on the road and trying to grab them from a home computer.

Luckily Leopard really improves when it comes to file sharing. The way to set services and preferences is easier and more thorough than it has ever been before.

Macworld posted an article today called, “File Sharing In Leopard that is quite helpful if you’re trying to do this sort of thing.

BatChmod: Change System Permissions Easily

Brian Stucki — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:29:43 +0000

As you move from shared hosting to running your own server, you’ll have the ability to work with permission on your Mac. I suppose this is a two edged sword. You can unlock a lot of power for yourself, but you also have the ability to really cause some problems.

BatChmod makes it easy to change the permissions on different files and folders. It is a free application and is available from the developer’s site.