In practice it works, but unpredictably - don’t bother over an AirPort connection, and with ADSL it’s easier for the remote user to download a copy and email them a code. If push was 100 per cent successful, this would tip the balance. Cheekily, Netopia has incorporated Apple’s Rendezvous technology (soon to be renamed Bonjour) to make finding suitable remote machines easier too. Indeed, but remote login gives Timbuktu a foothold on any networked machines that don’t yet have the Timbuktu client installed - you can push-install Timbuktu Pro onto a remote computer on your network, whether or not they’re running a previous version of the product (something that, as yet, ARD can’t). By supporting secure SSH connections between Macs and PCs, Timbuktu gains a set of feature-list ticks: there’s the security aspect - important, but often overlooked there’s some compression with SSH, so remote sessions may seem a bit snappier SSH logins can be authenticated using OS X user profiles, so you can login to your office machine remotely with your normal ID and password. The first is in its use of secure shell connection protocols - SSH. Whether Timbuktu 8 deserves the change in number from 7 to 8 is debatable, but it does offer benefits over ARD.
Apple upped the ante with its network-management tool, Remote Desktop (ARD) 2.1 - providing improved management tools, the ability to deal with connections via a VPN, and connections to any remote machine running a VNC compatible client - PCs or Unix boxes, Pocket PCs, and even PalmOS devices. Until very recently, Timbuktu was the de facto proprietary solution for cross-platform remote control of Macs and PCs.
Dyce & Sons | Timbuktu Pro 8.0 Dyce & Sons Ltd.