Controlling Your Mac Remotely From Another Computer

If you use more than one computer nowadays (such as an iMac at your home and a MacBook for work), there may be times that you may want to access it from another location. Or perhaps you would like to monitor a server or a colleague's computer down the hall or in another room in your office. Because of Local- and Wide-Area Networks such as the Internet, this is now easily possible through "Remote Control" or "Screen Sharing" software.

Mac OS X Lion comes built-in with remote control capabilities, which means that you can enable your screen to be shared to other computers, or you can view the screen of other computers using your own Mac. Or both! Since the underlying technology is based on the open source RFB protocol used by VNC, you'll be able to remote control Windows and Unix computers as well, if they have enabled it for you.

Setting up a Mac for Remote Access
In System Preferences, click the Sharing icon. Then check the Screen Sharing box. You'll be able to specify a password if you want VNC users from Windows and Unix computers to access your Mac. That's it!

Remotely Controlling Another Mac
If the Mac you want to remote control is in the same network as you are, open a new Finder window, click the computer you want to control in the list of Shared computers in the Finder's Sidebar, click Share Screen... and enter the username and password for the computer you want to control.

You'll get a new window showing the desktop of the other Mac, and you can do things as if you're in front of that computer. Dealing with multiple desktops, menus, and Finder Docks may be confusing at first, but you'll soon wonder how you survived without it.

What's Next?
For business users, this capability comes with security considerations as well, so it might be best to just turn on this functionality as needed, and make sure your passwords and network are secure. System administrators managing more than a couple of networked Macs may want to look at Apple Remote Desktop.

There are also third-party solutions such as RealVNC, LogMeIn, GotoMyPC, and TeamViewer you can use in a mixed, multi-platform environment. Put in a comment below if you'd like to see similar topics in the future!