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About This Blog
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Far Away Mac is a weblog by Macminicolo.net
about using your Mac as a server. We offer tips, application reviews and
tutorials on setup. Let us know if we can be of any help.
Used Mac minis
- Our current inventory of used Mac minis.
Applications To Try
Sep
10
If you’re reading this blog, you probably have a Mac server setup somewhere that requires your attention occasionally. For those of you with an iPhone, I hope to help you out.
Over on the Macminicolo.net site, I’ve put together a list of seven iPhone applications that I use every day to work with the Mac servers and IT work in general. You can read it here.
We try to help the common man set up a Mac server. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
May
28
When I travel with my Mac, I’m continually connecting to different wifi hot spots to check back on the data center and work with any support emails. As you can imagine, doing these two things, I’ve tried to be very careful not to use terribly private passwords and URL’s. You just never know if you can trust the network you’re using.
A couple months ago, I set up an SSH tunnel using these instructions. This allows for me to send all traffic encrypted to my Mac mini in the data center. This keeps things safe.
If you find yourself traveling often, perhaps this will be of use to you as well.
May
19
It used to be that to have remote control ability on Mac OS X it took third party applications. In Tiger they introduced a built in VNC server which is convenient. Now in Leopard, they include a built in VNC client called “Screen Sharing.”
This is actually the application that is used for “Back To My Mac” or to “Share Screen” with local machines on your network. But, it can also be used as a VNC client to any machine. It’s probably most convenient if you take the app and put it in your Dock. It’s located in /System/Library/CoreServices/Screen Sharing.
There are also other ways to open the app on demand.
In Safari, you can type “vnc://ip_address” in the URL bar, replacing “ip_address” with the actual address of the remote Mac.
In Finder, you can “Connect To Server” (Commank+K” and type it there as well.
Doing either of these things will open the application, begin the connection, and return asking for your login.
(Of course, to have any of this to work, you’ll need to be sure to have either “Screen Sharing” or “Remote Management” activated in your System Preferences -> Sharing panel.)
May
15
Ajaxterm is a web based terminal. It is incredibly easy to install it’s great to have in a bind.
For instance, if you were to lock yourself out of your server, you could re-enable screen sharing with this terminal. It’s also useful for when you don’t have a computer near that has a Terminal application but you need to do some quick work on your server.
AjaxTerm is free and can be downloade here.
(Thanks Nicholas for the heads up.)
Mar
31
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.)
Mar
21
As Macs become more and more prevalent in businesses, it’s only natural that some companies will want to keep their terminal service setup for their office. Aqua Connect makes this possible.
Aqua Connect’s Terminal Server solution allows the Mac OS X platform to be deployed to multiple devices simultaneously. The software product allows Macs, PCs and handheld devices to remotely connect while being isolated. (Similar to VNC, but with a terminal server there can be multiple people using it at the same time with their own desktop.)
The pricing is not clear as they require you to write in with your information and needs to get a pricing quote. There is a trial offer as well.
This is the only Terminal Server for Mac that I know of right now. (Maybe someone else has another option?)
If you are in the need, head over to the Aqua Connect Website.
Feb
21
Rumpus is an incredibly useful FTP server that can run on Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server. Of course, Mac OS X already comes with a quick way to turn on the FTP service, but Rumpus offers so many more options and is incredibly easy to set up.
Some of the options include.
- The ability to setup users solely for FTP. (Meaning, they don’t have to be a user on your Mac machine.)
- A great web interface for uploading files. You can choose which port to serve it up on and it is fully customizable so you can make it look like your existing website. This means a user can upload a file via the web browser.
- Easy to set permissions and home folders for users.
- Event notices so you can send a notification when a certain user moves a file or when a file is accessed. All kinds of options.
- Use secure connections. (HTTPS and FTPS)
- Stats and activity tab to see how much has been transferred and current activity.
There really is so much more to this app. The feature list is large and the price is pretty large too. A license is $269. The app and licenses can be found at the Rumpus site.
Jan
21
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.
Jan
19
Of all the FTP clients I’ve tried, Transmit is my favorite. (And I guess I’m not alone considering all the awards the app has won.)
The list of features is long, but among my favorite are:
- A very clean Mac-like interface
- Ability to edit and save to server
- Batch Downloading
- Column view to drag between local and remote folders
- A free dashboard widget for drage and drop uploading.
You can download a free trial or purchase the app for $29.95 on the developer’s website.
Jan
11
“Inco is a dashboard and administration tool for Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server 10.4 and 10.5. (And others, soon!) Inco runs on the machine you want to monitor, and you can access it from any web browser.” It looks especially great on the iPhone. Check out the Getting Started Guide (PDF link) to see what stats it can show you and how great they look on the iPhone.
Inco started out as a subscription product, but has since decided that a onetime charge is the way to go. For $36 you can “use Inco on as many machines as you own or operate.”
You can download it at the official Inco site.