For ages I have been searching the internet for a clear guide to remote desktop for OS X. I know that in reality Apple doesn’t call it by this name but for the world switching from Windows to OS X, this is what it’s called. With that out of the way, I’ll call it screen sharing for OS X and remote desktop for Windows just so that it’s not confusing.

From what I have read it looks like screen sharing has been available in OS X since version 10.5. So if you are running an older version, please upgrade to follow this tutorial.

You must enable screen sharing on the host computer (the one you will be connecting to). To do this, access your System Preferences and then click on Sharing. A window will appear with all your sharing options. Check the box beside the Screen Sharing. Click on the Computer Settings button to see the pop-up box and set your options accordingly. I currently left both check boxes blank as I am connecting only from inside my network to my own machine. Click OK and then click on Show All to get back to the main System Preferences box.

Your computer is now setup to share it’s screen.

The next step is to make a connection to your shared computer or host computer. This can be done in a number of ways, but I would like to share with you the best way in my books. If you are coming from the Windows world and are used to running a program to connect to a remote machine then follow this.

The program you are looking for is already on your computer but it is hidden away in a System folder. Open up your hard disk in the finder and then go to System, then Library and then CoreServices. In that folder you will find the icon for Screen Sharing. Drag that icon down to your dock and now you have it available all the time.

Open up the program to find a very simple window that will auto search for hosts via Bonjour or will let you specify a host by name or IP. Either double click on one in the list or enter one manually (I like to leave the check in Add to My Computers so it is there automatically next time) then press the connect button.

This is about as difficult as it gets. Only one thing could screw that up for you and that is trying to do it from outside the network. At that point you need to configure port forwards and all that fun stuff. Here is the info:

TCP: 5900 – 5902, (3389 for connecting to Windows machines)

UDP: 4500 (for Back to My Mac users)

I love to be able to access my machines from where ever I am. The terminal and SSH are extremely powerful, but I didn’t start using OS X because of the fun I can have with the terminal :)

Geek on!!!