The end of Back to My Mac?

I have just got an alert from Apple that Back to my Mac is closing when Mojave launches. I use BTMM to remote desktop to my home computer from my office computer and vice versa on a regular basis. My home computer is on DSL connection so does not have a fixed IP address. Does anyone know what would be the best way of continuing this facility after BTMM is killed?

Quentin,

I use Screens from https://edovia.com/ ($30 USD) along with their Screens Connect service / app (free) to do the same as BTMM. They also have another app, Screens Express, that you can have a third party run so you can connect to them to provide support.

If you want to do this completely for free and have the time to figure it out… use a free service such as https://www.noip.com/free (i’ve never used it, Google helped me find it) to track your computer’s ip address from outside your home. Once you have that address, which you can map to something nice like quentin.noip.com, you can then connect securely using SSH or a VPN (to protect your entire session), and then tunnel screen sharing/VNC inside of that.

I can provide more details if needed :wink:

There are a lot of other similar services out there aimed at those of us who provide remote tech support, the best of the ones I have used is Teamviewer. You can use it for free for personal use.

Cheers,

Dave

I also use Screens; it works great for connecting from my Mac or iPad/iPhone when on the road.

And now Screens is 20% off.

http://blog.edovia.com/2018/08/21/goodbye-back-to-my-mac/

Quentin North wrote: “Does anyone know what would be the best way of continuing this facility after BTMM is killed?”

Look into ‘dynamic dns’ services, that may be enough. They let your computer periodically tell the service what IP the ISP has currently assigned you, and the service links that to a stable domain name, either your own or one they provide. Decide on which apps you need connect with, such as Screen Sharing, file sharing with SMB, etc, and map those ports in your router to the right computer.

If your ISP has you thoroughly enough blocked off, simple dynamic dns may not help. You’ll need to use a commercial service that has a client on your mac constantly keep in touch with the servers, forming a tunnel that originates from your mac. (Basically what BTTM does). Most of these are subscription based and linked to a particular software package such as screen sharing, and aren’t free or even pay once partly because of the server overhead involved. It also funnels your traffic through the third party, so trust is an issue.

An alternative is to see if your ISP will let you get a static IP. They may not allow it for non-business accounts, and they’ll certainly charge you, probably on the order of $5-10/month. But if you can do that, it cuts a third party out of the loop and would likely be more reliable and certainly more flexible since you could use any software you wanted at any time. Note that with a static IP, you will be bombarded with net attacks, especially dictionary attacks against root accounts, so you do want to have the firewall turned on, and otherwise be somewhat more careful about security.

I don’t have any specific service suggestions, since I have static IPs from an old style independent ISP (which unfortunately means slow DSL).

Thanks everyone. I will certainly try some of your suggestions. I also found that TeamViewer is a free option that can be used to go back to a Mac or Windows computer without the need for noip or DynDNS, but it is not quite as transparent as BTMM.