Remote Login into a Windows Server with a Mac

[xstatical]

Has anyone had any experience with Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection software for Mac, or logging into a remote Windows server via a Mac through the internet? The company I work for requires me to be able to log into their server from home by typing in a URL in Internet Explorer (no special software). I am considering buying a late model iMac 20" (PowerPC) that have had a price reduction to replace my aging PC. I want to know if I will still be able to access the server over the internet with Mac OS X. I searched the internet and found Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection for Mac and wonder if it might be the answer. Unfortunately I can't 'try before I buy' and was wondering if you had had any experience with remote computing between Mac and PC or knew of someone who had successfully done this. If you need any clarification or more information regarding this question please feel free to ask me.

[billbaloney]

RDC works very well, depending on what you're trying to do. I'm not sure I understand your company's technical requirement here, though.

Originally Posted by xstatical

The company I work for requires me to be able to log into their server from home by typing in a URL in Internet Explorer (no special software).

If you need to load a URL in Windows IE from your own machine, then RDC won't actually help you. With RDC you're actually using the remote machine. If you were to load this URL while logged in via RDC, the server at the other end of the URL would have no awareness of your home IP address, which I assume is the point of the process.

If you really just need to load a single URL into Win IE, I'd suggest getting Virtual PC for Mac with a Windows XP license. It's slow, but it'll certainly be adequate.

[marzer]

Do you know for sure the remote site will only work with IE? If not, try logging in via a different browser, like FireFox. If it works with other browsers on Windows, it should work with Mac browsers.

Mark

[nixgeek]

If you're using RealVNC on that Windows server, you can have it display the desktop using Java. All you would have to do is enable the Java option in RealVNC's preferences and set whatever port you want to have it show on (default is 5800). Then all you would need to do in your Mac or PC client is fire up a web browser and type in the address in this fashion "http://<servername>:<port number>". An example would be "http://myserver.org:5800" if you're using the default port of 5800 for the java VNC session.

Knowing this, remember that this isn't the most secure of solutions. Nevertheless, it will be viewable on any browser on any computer sol long as you have Java installed and enabled.

As for RDP (the protocol used in Remote Desktop Client), I'm not sure if there's an option to have the remote computer running the RDP service to do it over the browser (haven't really checked on that, but I don't think it's possible). There are other solutions like LogMeIn but I don't know if I would be comfortable with them having my login information to my work server resident on their databases.

[ultramacfreak]

That definatly sound like some kind of java remote desktop client so you should be good to go.

[nixgeek]

Just make sure that if you use RealVNC or any other derivatives that you update to the latest version. The latest version of RealVNC is 4.1.2. There was a major exploit that allowed an attacker to gain access without even requiring a password with the previous versions.

That being said, the free version of VNC isn't the most secure since the password is sent in clear text. The enterprise version, however, is a much better option but it costs a pretty penny. You get what you pay for in this instance I guess.