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By Clint Boerner
12/20/2006
(Editor's note this a 'live' article. We will update it as we get new information and feedback)
If you manage a Mac network of any size, you really owe it to yourself (and your employer) to use some sort of tool for remote administration tool. These are powerful tools that can save you hours and hours time. With some of you can, quite literally, accomplish with the click of a mouse what would normal take days to accomplish by hand. Once you start using these tools, you'll wonder how you ever got by with out them. We'll briefly go over a few of your options here.
Timbuktu Pro
Timbuktu is the Granddaddy of Mac remote admin Tools. It's a time-tested application with most of the features you would want. You can remotely control other Macs (and PC's) on your network but it also allows you to interact will users, copying and/or sync files and get limited system information from remote machines. It's more stable than Apple Remote Desktop (see below) but it doesn't have quite all the features. The real deciding factor with this one is price. There is no free client for the application, so it needs to be installed it on every machine. At $189.95 for a twin pack or even $679.95 for a 10-user pack, it might make sense. But if you have more machine than that, it starts to become cost prohibitive.
Apple Remote Desktop
OK, I'll admit it. I'm a big fan of Apple Remote Desktop (ARD). It does everything that Timbuktu can do and then some. You can run detailed reports, do remote software installs, start and stop applications, send UNIX commands, etc. all on multiple machines at once. You can even set up an ARD server so these tasks happen in the middle of the night, while you are away. The best part is the client is free; it's built into the operating system (turn it on or off in the sharing control panel). If you want to learn more about ARD, Peachpit Press has posted a excellent series of articles by Ryan Faas.
Chicken of the VNC
If you are on a budget there is a free alternative. Chicken of the VNC allows one to display and interact with a remote computer screen. In other words, you can use Chicken of the VNC to interact with a remote computer as though it's right next to you. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of some of the commercial programs, it's just for remote control, but it could save you the hassle of walking over to another building just to do a couple mouse clicks on a users machine. When it comes configuration of the client machines, ARD comes to the rescue again. You can enable VNC access and set a password through the Apple Remote Desktop settings in the sharing Control panel.
(Editors note: As with many of the options in the sharing control panel you should use caution when enabling ARD, you could potentially allow anyone who has or can guess your password complete access to your computer)
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