mac system preferences wake for network access

System Preferences Wake For Network Access Update Your Routers

Note that for either approach, anyone sitting at your computer will see an indication in the status menus that you are logged on.

While the advent of services like iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.com, OneDrive, and MediaFire have made accessing your files easier, most of them require you to organize your files in specific synchronized folders on your Mac.

They also have the drawback of storing your files on third-party servers, which might not be the most desirable place for personal or sensitive information.

If you would like to remotely access files that are stored on your Mac, there are several ways to do it.

But before doing so you will need a way to access your Mac from wherever you are on the Internet.

There are a number of dynamic DNS services that can do this, but perhaps the most convenient (and arguably best) option is to use Apples Back to My Mac service.

Setting up Back to My Mac Configuring Back to My Mac isnt difficult.

Keep in mind that Back to My Mac requires that the remote Mac be connected to the Internet.

Also, it should be configured to wake on demand so that when its asleep, it can act on a Back to My Mac request.

To help ensure that this happens, launch System Preferences, choose the Energy Saver preference, and enable the Wake for Network Access option.

Another issue you might run into is if your network has a firewall configured that prevents Back to My Mac access.

If you can set up Back to My Mac but cannot seem to connect from a remote location, you might need to check your routers settings to ensure UPnP, or NAT-PMP services are enabled.

System Preferences Wake For Network Access Update Your Routers

In addition, check or reset your routers firewall (toggle it off, and test the connection), and also update your routers firmware to its latest version.

Its a good idea to test such a connection from a local coffee shop before needing to use Back to My Mac for mission critical work.

When Back to My Mac is set up, you have several options for connecting to your remote Macopening programs and files directly on it, copying files to and from it, and controlling it remotely from the command line.

Share another Macs screen The most intuitive way to access and manage your remote Mac is Screen Sharing, which streams the desktop view from your remote computer to the Mac youre currently using.

While the performance of this service depends on the speed of your broadband connection, you can use this to work as if you were sitting in front of your Mac.

To enable Screen Sharing, go to the Sharing system preferences, enable the Screen Sharing service, and ensure that your user account is allowed access.

When done, you can select your Mac in the Finder sidebar of another Mac configured with the same iCloud account and then click the option to share the remote Macs screen and open applications and documents on it.

With these, you can drag files from the Finder in your current Mac to the screen sharing window to copy them to the remote computer.

To use the shared clipboard option (enabled by selecting User Shared Clipboard in the Edit menu), copy any selected text or images on either Mac and the data will stream to the clipboard of the other.

Since OS X supports multiple user accounts, you may connect to your remote Mac when another user is logged on.

In these instances, Screen Sharing supports multiple sharing sessions.

In this scenario you are given the choice to either log into your account behind the scenes or view what the current user is seeing (with his or her permission).

Mac System Preferences Wake For Network Access