Reader G. Murray needs to restart his Mac at times whilst it’s no longer within arm’s attain—or maybe with strolling legs’ reach. He’s questioning what alternatives are available with modern Macs. His Mac is placed on a network created with the aid of a Time Machine, so it has a privately assigned IP deal with the usage of NAT (Network Address Translation).
Two sorts of options observe right here: for a while, the Mac remains to tick away but isn’t doing what you need so that you want to restart it if simplest you may join remotely to it; or while the Mac is unreachable and ostensibly crashed or experiencing other troubles, and you need to electricity cycle it.
Remotely connect with an operating Mac.
Screen sharing and far-off terminal get entry to can help you manage a Mac remotely, however accomplishing that Mac over the Internet is frequently the fly in the ointment.
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While macOS consists of Back to My Mac, which pairs with iCloud to allow remote access to a Mac through the Screen Sharing app. It only works in its normal configuration from any other Mac signed into the equal iCloud account. Apple offers no guest admission to different Macs—though you may install an account on another Mac quickly—nor does it have an iOS app.
Instead of Back to My Mac and the Screen Sharing app, you may use the general screen-sharing protocol VNC. (To be greater confusing, Apple’s Screen Sharing app is based on VNC, however no longer equal.) VNC can work over Back to My Mac, but it doesn’t usually because it’s not a supported characteristic. Third-celebration macOS and iOS apps assist you in accessing any VNC-capable device.
Enable display screen sharing within the Sharing Machine desire pane, and click on the Computer Settings buttons to show on VNC. Warning! Always set a robust password for VNC because it’s clean for attackers to experiment for VNC and find yours if it’s accessible from the Internet.
Back to My Mac fails with “double NAT” conditions, which I regrettably have and aren’t entirely uncommon. A double NAT happens generally whilst an ISP gives a modem that still acts as a router and which has functions you couldn’t replicate or flip off. If you connect, say, an AirPort Extreme with DHCP and NAT enabled to a LAN port on the ISP’s modem, you’re developing a NAT inside a NAT. All outbound connections paintings high-quality, but inbound ones can be a mess. (In my case, the furnished model has a few difficult-to-understand networking capabilities used by CenturyLink’s fiber-optic community.)
Instead of counting on macOS, you could turn to 1/3-celebration faraway get entry to a software program, even though my favorites have dwindled and left active improvement, even as ones that used to have unfastened or cheap flavors have gone business and expensive.
TeamViewer remains the exception, being nonetheless continuously developed and free for private, non-business use. It can punch through a double NAT, and it’s my favored device as though it works on practically every platform, together with macOS and iOS. The business enterprise charges a pretty hefty price if you’re using it for business purposes, beginning at $850 for a perpetual license for remotely having access to up to 3 gadgets. For business customers without massive budgets, I advise LogMeIn, which is $250 a yr for two devices.
Chris Breen’s 2012 directions on using SSH to reboot or shut down a Mac through a Terminal consultation continue to be correct, so I refer you there. But developing a far-flung Terminal consultation through SSH, a relaxed protocol that’s trustworthy over the Internet, calls for putting in place port mapping on a router or Wi-Fi base station the usage of DHCP reservation (so your Mac has the same private IP cope with all of the time) and NAT port forwarding (so an Internet-available network cubbyhole maps to the Mac you want it to).
Unfortunately, Apple no longer offers a detailed manual to AirPort configuration as it did years in the past. I’m reluctant to toot my very own horn. Still, if you actually need to install this form of far-flung access for SSH or other offerings, you’ll discover entire commands on this topic in my ebook, Take Control of Your Apple Wi-Fi Network.
Remotely power cycle your Mac
In the past, my buddies, I owned a surge protector power strip from Sophisticated Circuits (the PowerKey line) that had a dial-up modem built in. You may want to name right into a telephone line, and it’d help you use a hint-tone smartphone to control power cycling character retailers, among other functions. In the times of jogging Mac and different servers that wanted “remote hands,” the several PowerKey models I owned stored various past due-night time automobile trips to places of work.
But we’ve got the Internet now, and you should buy the equal sort of object that works over IP instead of a voice line. Unfortunately, those gadgets generally tend to feed a lot. However, they’re designed to be strong and join through ethernet to increase reliability. The $seventy-six ezOutlet unmarried-outlet faraway strength switch has commonly fantastic critiques and can be controlled thru an iOS or Android app.
Another alternative might be to set up HomeKit with faraway access and use a HomeKit-well-matched smart outlet. You can locate some of such items, including the roughly $40 iHome SmartPlug, reviewed at TechHive. But remote get entry to calls for either a 3rd or 4th era Apple TV. If you don’t very own an Apple TV, that bumps up the overall fee quite a piece.
Ask Mac 911
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