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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!

The whole reason I had a jailbroken iPhone was to run VNSea. This let me control all of the Macs in our data center.

But when iPhone version 2.0 came out, I updated despite losing the VNSea client.

So you can imagine how happy I was to see VNC Mocha lite. It is a very well done VNC client that let’s you store multiple connections to control both Macs and PCs. It has a real nice interface that let’s you scroll around the remote screen, use a mouse cursor, and pop up a QWERTY keyboard for use. Just set up your Mac server for Screen Sharing and off you go.

And it is also free. (They’ll be releasing a $5.99 version later that has a few more options.)

To learn more about the app, visit here. Or you can drop straight to the iTunes App Store to download it here. (iTunes Link)

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.)

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.)

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.