Discover the top 100 best vnc client apps for android free and paid. Top android apps for vnc client in AppCrawlr! What are the best settings to use, both on the Mc and on the VNC client? Can I tell the Mac to use a lower colour depth for VNC clients? I have a special user account that I use for remote access - lower.
I recently got a Mac mini as both a media centre and a desktop computer. I'd like control it remotely, over wifi, using my MacBook.
I have the impression that what's basically needed is to enable Screen Sharing (in System Preferences -> Sharing) on the Mini, and a VNC client program on the laptop. If that is correct, which (preferably free) VNC client is best suited for this job? Anything else I should know?
Update: While the OS X built-in VNC client is the quickest solution, JollysFastVNC and Chicken of the VNC seem strong options too. CotVNC clearly has the best keyboard 'immersion', while JollysFastVNC seemed smoother in some other ways and is more actively developed.
For a future reader looking for a Mac VNC client, I suggest you try out the 3 top options below and pick the one that suits you!
5 Answers
Macs come with a VNC client; it’s in /System/Library/CoreServices/Screen Sharing.
Or use Finder’s Go > Connect to Server… in the menu bar (or press ⌘K) and enter vnc:// and the address of the remote Mac mini.
JollysFastVNC is by far my prefered client. It is fast, has a built in SSH tunnel mapper, cool screen zoom if your client screen is much smaller than server machine) lots of options for more complete keyboard immersion, which hopefully should solve your screen sharing problems..
GaffYou could try LogMeIn. You can use it from any computer and you only have to install software on the computer you control. It's also free, which is always nice.
alexalexTao of Mac has a VNC posting.
There is also JollysFastVNC.
And, wikiHow: How to Setup VNC on Mac OS X
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged macosmacsoftware-recremote-desktopvnc or ask your own question.
I have a number of FreeBSD servers, and I'd like to put VNC server software on them, then access them from a Mac running OS X 10.9.5.
I really don't want to have to access them from a virtual windows machine running on the MAC :-(
A web search for 'mac vnc client' produces zero useful hits. (I don't want remote access to the mac.)
My memory is that Apple had a built in client with a non-obvious name, perhaps 'screen', which they 'fixed' a few releases ago to only work if the VNC server was itself from Apple, running on a Mac. Perhaps they have since unfixed it.
I once used 'chicken of the vnc', which was flaky on whatever OS X release I had 2 years ago. I also used another non-apple client from that Mac, which was flaky in different ways. (The built in app was unusable.)
IIRC, I was using 'Tightvnc' or 'Realvnc' on my servers at that time, which had worked fine with the first random windows-based VNC client I tried.
All I've heard about so far are
- 'screen sharing app' from apple, possibly pre-installed on the mac,name and location unknown
- a client from realvnc that runs in the chrome browser (ugh!)
When referring to OS X releases, please use release numbers in your answers, not just names of cats - or else link to a page that translates the cat names to release numbers. I don't have Apple's release code names memorized.
[Update, after first answer received: alternativeto.net is a great source for finding software of this type. I now have tigervnc running on one server and on the Mac client. No flakiness so far, but the Mac client for tigervnc seems unwilling to let me connect to multiple servers at the same time, and Mac's GUI interface seems unwilling to let me launch multiple copies of the client program. So still looking for alternatives, but making progress.
Still trying to figure out how to invoke the client built into OSX - it's not at the path I found on the net, /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications Looks like I need to know the right invocation to feed to Finder, which doesn't have anything like a button labelled 'screen sharing'. I did find a menu item labelled 'connect to server', but that just gives me connection failures, perhaps because it's defaulting a URI type of afp:// which probably has nothing to do with vnc - or perhaps because the tool is unrelated to vnc.]
While this works great in the VMware vSphere Client or Parallels, it doesn’t work in RDC. Copy file from remote pc using parallels for mac client. On the Mac, this usually equates to ⌘-R or ⌘-E. To make it work in RDC, open up the Preferences window and click on the Keyboard tab.
7 Answers
The built-in VNC client with OS X works just great with most VNC servers I've tried on FreeBSD. I've mostly been using TigerVNC from ports (seems to be the fastest with OS X's VNC client), and the only issue I have is when I restart the VNC server while connected to it. The OS X VNC client will reconnect (great!) but it sizes the window oddly, and I can't resize it. Since scaling is turned on, this usually results in a small screen that cannot be read. Just restart the VNC client (or close the window and open a new connection, if you've got multiple connections open), and it's all OK again.
Since I have xterms open all the time on my mac, I generally do it like so:
where <port> is the TCP port on which the server is running.
E.g. if it's :1, you'd use 5901 as <port>. You can even install the avahi port, and set up a service, so the VNC session shows up in Finder (although there's a Finder preference to change to make them show up since OS X 10.8, IIRC), just like a Mac that has 'screen sharing' enabled (i.e. it's running a VNC server).
You can connect to remote Linux machines with your Mac's built-in vnc client.
Setup the vnc server on the remote Linux machine.
On your Mac, go to Finder. Press
cmd+Kor Go > Connect to Server.In the Server Address, enter
vnc://{HOST}:{PORT}. For examplevnc://linux.myhost.com:5901.
A VNC session will be connected to the remote Linux machine with the Screen Sharing application.
What you are looking for is the built in Screen Sharing app which resides in System/Library/CoreServices. It can connect to most VNC servers and is slightly faster than other options such as RealVNC.
Real VNC or VNC Viewer are the same client (aside from platform) as used on Windows PCs for decades. OS X is designed to work with VNC protocol out of the box.
Free Vnc For Mac
As an added bonus, Real VNC is available as a free iOS app.
The only real concerns you should have in using it are security hardening, ie restricting access to specific IP addresses or users.
I don't have a lot of recent experience with VNC on the Mac but if you look at this (on stackexchange.com) it will explain how to connect to another client via the O/S X VNC server.
Apple's version is called Remote Desktop, the commercial version is just Apple Remote Desktop and really designed to manage Macs. I've used the latter but never tried to connect to a strictly VNC client. Not sure if it is possible.
If you go to the RealVNC website and choose 'Download > Viewer' you get a native OSX app that works nicely for me. I'm not exactly sure about the licensing terms, but going through 'Products > Product Selector' on the homepage seems to indicate that the Viewer is free (while the Server is licensed).
The built-in Apple Screen Sharing works nicely too, although I experienced hangs with xterm on the remote (tracked as 'linux xterm problem' in Apple Support Communities). The built-in is accessible from Safari through vnc://hostname in the address bar. If launched once, you can right-click on the icon in the dock and choose Options > Keep in Dock for easy access.
Things improved when I shut that off.
Vnc For Mac Os
The 'Chicken' VNC did not work for me at all.
The best explanation I've seen for how to use apple's 'screen' as a vnc client is at http://www.davidtheexpert.com/post.php?id=5
He seems unaware of the period when apple had broken compatibility with non-apple VNC servers, but other than that his instructions seem great, and work beautifully on OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6. (I'm no longer on 10.9.5)
Arlie StephensArlie Stephens