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Since Lion, VNC seems to be hard to play with, is there any other VNC server alternative (except Vine Server which doesn't work at all on Lion)?

I also played with iRapp which is a RDP server and that worked so well but unfortunately it cost $80 so it's kind of expensive for the moderate usage I'd make out of it.

Any idea or suggestions are welcome!

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closed as off-topic by random Dec 14 '13 at 5:40



7 Answers 7

up vote 4 down vote accepted

An alternative VNC Server could be RealVNC, an alternative to VNC itself could be Team Viewer it works fine on Lion and it is free for moderate private use.

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I need something to control a headless Mac on my LAN, and TeamViewer goes through the internets so it's too slow to be usable enough. As for RealVNC, only the Enterprise edition is working on Mac (As I read on their website). Thanks –  TomShreds Apr 8 '12 at 18:57
Team Viewer can work also inside the local network... –  aleroot Apr 8 '12 at 18:58
For some reason it seems to be as slow as if I wasn't using it from the local network, I don't get why, I just investigate a bit more, thanks! –  TomShreds Apr 8 '12 at 19:00
I'm sorry about arguing about what you said about TeamViewer, I just noticed a LAN option in the settings, and it works VERY well! Thanks! –  TomShreds Apr 8 '12 at 21:30
RealVNC Free works fine on OS X: realvnc.com/products/vnc/licensing –  ta.speot.is Dec 14 '13 at 4:36

My IT department restricts my access to the Screen Sharing part of Lion's preferences so I needed an alternative. I was able to get RealVNC running as a server with a free license (phone and email required). This was using 5.0.1 and Lion 10.7.4. Very easy.

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A little late :) bu iRAPP for Lion now is free...

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How is it free? On the web I see "Download the free 14-day trial". –  pabouk Dec 14 '13 at 15:29

For at least some uses (check the license), Wyse PocketCloud may be an option.

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Lion's built in VNC server works just fine, they just changed the authentication process and many clients are no-longer capable of logging on, especially ones that haven't been updated since Lion came out or where Mac compatibility is a low priority.

In my experience, the ones that haven't been updated for Lion support by now usually didn't work very well with OS X anyway (poor system integration).

These days there are plenty of Lion compatible VNC clients available. I use it all the time with an iPad app I found, and it works great.

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Okay, if there's so many of them which are working, why don't you state some of them? Thanks –  TomShreds Apr 8 '12 at 18:54
The one I bought works: Remotix. Apple's own Screen Sharing (free for home/small business use) and Apple Remote Desktop (expensive/for enterprise) obviously both work. Six or seven other free/cheap iOS apps I tried before settling on Remotix all worked. I only ever run Windows in a virtual machine, so I haven't tested any there. I didn't find any app that doesn't work, though they all did have a "mac" authentication type. My understanding is VNC is a loose standard, that doesn't really define an authentication protocol. These days Apple has one that's a bit different from windows. –  Abhi Beckert Apr 8 '12 at 21:38
Oh, I was searching one that works with a VNC windows client, and the only one that says that it works is RealVNC which unfortunately gives a mediocre performance :-/ But thanks –  TomShreds Apr 9 '12 at 12:38

Actually teamviewer 7.0.11067 have a bug which provide to black screen view when you connect to your mac when it were in Economy Power mode... and it is sad.

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Welcome to Super User! This is really a comment, not an answer to the question. With sufficient reputation, you can use the "add comment" button to leave feedback for the author. –  Peachy Oct 20 '12 at 12:23


Though oddly named, this VNC program, "Chicken of the VNC", works great, I just tested it.

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