Get superior quality audio and video streaming during remote sessions
For Mac users, the stalwart tool has been the Microsoft Remote Desktop connection. Available now through the Mac App store, it allows users to remotely connect to a Windows desktop to access local. How to Remotely Access Your Mac Using Screens Connect. If you’re a tech guru or at least have advanced knowledge in computer networking, then a trick you can try to remotely access your Mac is to use Remote Login. However, this procedure requires a static IP address, knowledge about your router, and knowledge in port forwarding. If you need to work from home, control, fix or access another computer from your Mac, we’ve taken a look at the very best remote desktop software for Mac in 2020. Remote desktop software is especially useful right now for those that are working remotely in light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
With Splashtop’s high-performance remote connections to Mac computers, users can:
- Carry out processor-intensive tasks like creating 3D models, animations, VFX, audio-video syncing, video editing, graphics rendering, and much more, on remote Mac computers in real-time.
- Use applications like Avid Media Composer, Avid Pro Tools, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and many more that are on remote Mac computers from any device, at any time.
Creatives in fields like media, entertainment, architecture, design, gaming, and more can leverage the processing power of their Mac workstations, at any time from home
Educational institutions can support distance learning or hybrid learning programs by enabling students to access on-campus Mac lab computers
Splashtop’s high-performance features for Macs include:
- iMac Pro Retina 5K streaming, at low latency
- Reduced CPU utilization providing more CPU headroom to process applications
- Ability to customize Splashtop settings to optimize performance for the usage model
- Optimizations to take advantage of the latest hardware acceleration
“Students don’t have a powerful enough computer to handle all the stuff we’re throwing at them. For example, with video editing, the students are doing 4k, even up to 8k, and their MacBook Pros aren’t going to be able to handle that. We have iMac Pros in the labs at school and the students are able to remote in and everything works for them.”
– Chris Gilbert, Application Technical Analyst,
College of Fine, Performing, and Communication Arts, Wayne State University
College of Fine, Performing, and Communication Arts, Wayne State University
“I installed Splashtop on a few Macs and tested it from my own computer and the sound worked, so I was very excited about that. We specifically got Splashtop because it was the top solution for Macs.”
– Nicholas Adams, the Director of Information Technology, and Mats Holm, Network Administrator,
Lenawee Intermediate School District
Lenawee Intermediate School District
Preferred Solution for Remotely Accessing Mac Computers
Get high performance, multi-monitor, audio and video streaming
Remote into Macs with any Windows, Mac, iOS, Android or Chromebook device
Set up is fast and easy. Much easier to deploy and manage than a VPN.
Get secure remote connections with multiple levels of security and compliance
Integrate with Single Sign-On for easy, secure and centralized authentication
Splashtop integrates with Jamf Pro, allowing Jamf Pro Admins to easily deploy and configure Splashtop on managed Macs and enable employees or students to remotely access the computers.
To Enable Remote Access to Mac Computers
- You can remote into Mac, Windows, or Linux computers from any computer or mobile device
- Or
- For large deploymentsSSO Add-onOn-Premise Deployment
To Enable Student Access to Remote Mac Labs
- Solutions specifically designed for providing student access to shared Windows or Mac lab computers
- Our team can schedule a demo and assist in configuring a solution
Configure audio streaming during a Mac remote session using Splashtop
Users can configure sound to be either on the remote/host device or on the local device by going in the remote/host devices’ Splashtop Streamer application, on the Settings tab. To stream audio, users will need to install the sound driver, which requires a reboot and may require security and privacy permissions (Catalina & Mojave). Read more about how to set up sound.
Sometimes after opening some other third-party software on the remote Mac, such as Avid Media Composer or Adobe Premiere, users might have to re-configure sound settings. Read more to see how to change the sound settings.
![Macbook Macbook](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8e/Launchpad_on_OS_X_El_Capitan.png/300px-Launchpad_on_OS_X_El_Capitan.png)
You turn on your MacBook and feel that something is wrong: some files have disappeared, or new files were added. You wonder if someone has been watching your computer.
So, how to tell if someone is remotely accessing your MacBook? You need to check your logs, verify that no new users were created, make sure that remote login, screen sharing and remote management are disabled, and no spyware is running on your computer.
First things first. If you suspect that someone is controlling your laptop and if there is a chance that they watching you thru the webcam immediately apply a cover on laptop’s webcam. You can find my favorite webcam covers here.
Pro-tip: While it is certainly possible that someone is remotely accessing your Mac, chances are higher that you caught a virus. Click here to find out the best antivirus programs for Mac.
What is remote access and how is it configured on MacBooks?
There are three ways to access MacOS remotely: allow remote logins from another computer, enable Screen Sharing or allow access by using Remote Desktop. Both ways are legitimate, but if you don’t remember doing any of them you need to know how to turn on and off those possibilities.
Remote login to MacOS
Computers that run MacOS as an operating system can log in to your Mac using Secure Shell (SSH). Steps to enable remote login are the following:
- Go to System Preferences. You can get there by clicking on the apple icon on the left of the top bar. After you clicked on apple icon you will see a drop-down menu where you should click on System Preferences menu item.
- Find Sharing folder and double click. Click on Remote Login checkbox on the left.
- Now you have the option to allow access either for all user or only specific users.
Once Remote Login is enabled then users with access can use SSH to log in and browse your computer’s contents.
Access to Mac screen using Screen Sharing
If you need help from IT to make changes on your MacBook or maybe you are collaborating on a project and want to share your screen you can enable Screen Sharing. Steps to enable as follows:
- Go to System Preferences.
- Find Sharing folder and double click. Click on Screen Sharing checkbox on the left.
- Allow access either for all user or only specific users.
Now on another Mac (from which you want to access to your Mac) start Screen Sharing app. You can start it by clicking Command and Space buttons. In a popup form type Sharing and hit Enter. Type your computer name. In my case, I had to type in “dev-pros-MacBook-Pro.local”.
A new window will pop up with the shared screen of another computer. Now you can control the screen.
Remote Desktop with Remote Management
Remote Computer Access Mac
Finally, it is possible to login to a computer with MacOS by enabling Remote Desktop. Steps to enable as follows:
- Go to System Preferences.
- Find Sharing folder and double click. Click on Remote Management check box on the left.
- Allow access either for all user or only specific users.
- There will be different Sharing options where you can fine-tune the type of access to allow: observe, change settings, delete, copy and even restart the computer.
Now you can access this Mac from Apple Remote Desktop – it’s an application you can buy from Apple Store and at the time of writing it’s cost was $79.99.
If your Mac is being monitored, it will show this image (two rectangles) in the top right-hand corner near your computer time:
When that symbol appears, you will be able to tell if you are being monitored. You can also disconnect the viewer by clicking on Disconnect option:
You can also click on “Open Sharing Preferences…” which will open Sharing folder in System Preferences.
Since the question you had was if someone remotely accessing your computer then the chances are that you don’t need any of sharing capabilities mentioned above.
In this case, check all options on Sharing folder under System Preferences to make sure that nobody is allowed to access it and turn off (uncheck) all options.
Verify if new users were created
As we’ve seen already remote login or sharing options require assigning access roles to the local users. If your system was hacked it is very likely that the hacker has added a new user to access it. To find out all users in MacOS perform the following steps:
- Start Terminal app by either going to Applications and then Utilities folder or clicking Command and Space and typing Terminal in the popup window.
- In the Terminal window type:
Windows To Mac Remote Desktop
On my laptop it listed dev1, nobody, root and daemon.
If you see the accounts, you do not recognize then they probably have been created by a hacker.
In order to find when the user account was used to log in last time type the following command into the Terminal:
last
last
For each account, MacOS will list the times and dates of logins. If the login to any of the accounts happened at an abnormal time, it is possible that a hacker used a legitimate account to log in.
Check the logs
It may be useful to check the system logs for any possible access issues.
In order to find a system log, click on Go option in the top menu or simultaneously click Shift, Command and G. In the “Go to Folder” popup type: /var/log and hit Enter.
Now find system.log file and scan for word sharing. For instance, I found following screen sharing log entries:
Apple air hard drive upgrade. These were log entries when someone logged in to my system remotely:
Check for spyware
If you are still suspecting that spyware is running on your machine you can use a third party application like Little Snitch which monitors applications, preventing or permitting them to connect to attached networks through advanced rules. Setting up the rules for Little Snitch, however, could be complicated.
One of the common spyware applications is a keystroke logger or keylogger. Keyloggers used to be apps that record the letters you type on the keyboard, but they significantly in last years. Suffice to day that keyloggers can take screenshots every 30 seconds or even track your chat activity, including the messages sent to you.
Remote Access Macbook Air
I believe that keyloggers are much greater security threat because they are easier to install and the powerful features they offer. Check my article about keyloggers here: How to know if my Mac has a keylogger
Security Best Practices
Use Apple Remote With Macbook
1.Change passwords regularly
One thing you should immediately if you are suspecting that someone is logging to your system is to change your password. And the password should be complex enough so that other people wouldn’t be able to guess it. This means avoiding using things like birthdate, first or last name or relatives, house or apartment number, etc. As a rule of thumb the password must be long enough (8 – 32 characters) and include at least 3 of the following character types:
One thing you should immediately if you are suspecting that someone is logging to your system is to change your password. And the password should be complex enough so that other people wouldn’t be able to guess it. This means avoiding using things like birthdate, first or last name or relatives, house or apartment number, etc. As a rule of thumb the password must be long enough (8 – 32 characters) and include at least 3 of the following character types:
- Uppercase letter (A-Z)
- Lowercase letter (a-z)
- Digit number (0-9)
- Special characters such as ~!@#$%^&*
2.Enable Security Updates by clicking on “Automatically keep my Mac up to date” in Software Update folder in System Preferences.
3. Install Antivirus. I received a lot of emails where people described suspicious activity on their Macs. I found that in about 60-70% cases, the culprit was malwareand not someone breaking into the computer. It’s a myth that Macs don’t get viruses. If you need proof check the next article I wrote after testing 12 antivirus programs after injecting 117 malware samples on my Mac: