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Apple mends a Heartbleed security bug in its latest WiFi routers
Apple has largely avoided the wrath of the Heartbleed security flaw, but it now appears that the company's products aren't completely immune. The crew in Cupertino just updated its most recent AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule WiFi routers to fix a Heartbleed-related vulnerability that surfaces when you're either using Back to My Mac remote access or sending diagnostics. While the flaw won't let evildoers steal your credentials, they could launch man-in-the-middle attacks that grant access to login pages on both the router and your computers -- more than a little dangerous, we'd say. You don't have to worry if you're still hanging on to an older AirPort, but everyone using Apple's latest networking gear will want to patch up as soon as possible.
Terminal Tips: More reliable SSH connections to your Back to My Mac hosts
Back to My Mac is a feature of MobileMe that allows you to connect remotely to your Macs. Usually this is for screen-sharing or file-sharing through the Finder, but you can also connect via SSH. In the Terminal app (found in /Applications/Utilities/), you can connect via Shell » New Remote Connection, then click the "Secure Shell (SSH)" item, then the computer you want to connect to under the "Server" column. But what if that doesn't work? In that case, I have two suggestions for you: first, use SSH v2 and IPv6. Perhaps it's best to show you the command and then explain it: ssh -2 -6 imac.luomat.members.mac.com -v The "members.mac.com" is consistent for all users. "luomat" is my MobileMe username. "imac" is the hostname of my Mac. See System Preferences » Sharing if you don't know what your computer's name is, or to change it. The "-2" tells SSH to only try SSH protocol version 2, and the "-6" tells SSH to only use IPv6 addresses. The "-v" tells SSH to be "a little" verbose in its output. That part is optional. You could also use -vv or -vvv if you want more verbosity. So far, this method has given me even more success than my DynDNS hostname, which I described before. Before you worry about the security implications of giving people my MobileMe hostname, I should mention that it seems to be impossible to connect to BTMM hostnames unless you are connecting from another computer that is logged into that same MobileMe account. If you have spaces in the computer's name, they are usually replaced with "-" and punctuation is ignored. So, "John's iMac" becomes "Johns-iMac" in the SSH command. Marco Arment also figured out that if you have a period in the hostname or MobileMe username, you should escape it with a \ so that "john.doe" becomes "john\.doe" when you are connecting via SSH. Of course, to be able to connect to your remote Mac via SSH, you must have enabled "Remote Login" under System Preferences » Sharing.
ScreenSharingMenulet hits 2.0
ScreenSharingMenulet is a free (donations requested) program which I've mentioned before that runs in your menu bar and gives you access to computers for quick access to screen sharing. My success with Back To My Mac was "spotty" at best until I started using the DynDNS service, port forwarding, and DHCP Reservations to get 100% reliable screen sharing sessions between my home and work computers. (It's not nearly as complicated as it sounds. Most of it is just one-time configuration which will then make things easier every time you do it in the future.) This does not require a subscription to MobileMe or involve any cost. DynDNS hosts don't appear in the Finder like Back To My Mac hosts do, which is where ScreenSharingMenulet comes in. Click on the menu bar icon, type in the DynDNS hostname (check the box to "Add to My Computers"), and voilà! You're connected as easily as you always thought Back To My Mac would be, but never was. ScreenSharingMenulet has just released a new version 2.0 which has preferences to show/hide Back to My Mac Hosts and show/hide local IP addresses. It also fixes a few bugs. One change that people may not like as much is the removal of the "Recent Hosts" submenu, but frequently contacted hosts can easily be added to the "My Computers" menu by checking a box when initiating the connection. A few other minor changes were also made. Even if Back To My Mac worked consistently and reliably, I would still prefer ScreenSharingMenulet for initiating the connection because it's easier and faster to reach from my menu bar than going through Finder.
Ask TUAW: DVD Sharing on an iMac, menubar calendar, network scanning, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we have questions about using DVD Sharing on an iMac (instead of a MacBook Air), ignoring Software Updates, getting a drop-down calendar in the menubar, seeing Wi-Fi network channels, using iChat with other services, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume that you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify), or if it's an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.
Apple thefts continue, but don't work so well for the crooks
Another day, another dumb criminal gets snared by Apple technology. In this case, 2 dumb criminals. This latest foiled crime involved the theft of 4 iPhones from the Apple Palisades store in West Nyack, New York. According to the Journal News up that way, the two crooks ran from the store, and police put out a description of the thieves. The phones were also tracked using the built-in iPhone GPS, and the info led police to a hardware store parking lot in Orangetown. The hapless thieves are scheduled to appear tomorrow in court to answer to to the charges relating to the stolen iPhones and also to explain why they had 2 more stolen iPhones in their possession. The apprehended men are now in the Rockland County jail, hopefully thinking it may not have been so smart to steal phones with GPS tracking. Oddly, the Journal News article quotes cops saying the value of the four stolen phones was close to $4,000, which seems quite high; perhaps they meant the value of all six phones found with the suspects. Meanwhile, our friend 'Jim' says he is getting good cooperation from his local police in apprehending the thieves who stole his MacBook and iMac. As you'll remember from our previous coverage, Jim has the Back to My Mac feature of MobileMe and using the screen sharing function saw someone filling out an online job application, which helpfully listed their address, phone number, name and Social Security number. Then yesterday, Jim snagged a picture of one of the alleged crooks who had used the built in iSight camera to pose for a snapshot.. As Jim continues to make contact with his stolen laptop, he finds more goodies. Someone logged into their MySpace page, and Jim was able to copy and download various pictures of the alleged perps. He also retrieved one of their cellphone numbers. Police have made a couple of visits to the address, but haven't found anyone at home. They are persisting and will undoubtedly find them, likely ruining their day. [Thanks to Jim R. for the West Nyack tip]
An incredible stolen Mac story without a final chapter
Update 2:30p ET 9/1: We've heard more from the theft victim; see the latest news on this crime story here. We're getting our share of crime stories lately, and today's is really a jaw dropper. I'm going to be sketchy on details and locations because there is an investigation underway. Here's what we have so far. An East Coast man had his house broken into with 2 Macs and one PC stolen, along with some other household items of value. One of the Macs was a laptop, and our victim bought a new MacBook Pro to replace it, and used a Time Machine backup to restore all his files. The crime was reported to police, who said they had no leads, but there had been a string of similar burglaries in the area for quite some time. When our victim (we'll call him Jim) sat down at his replacement laptop last night, he saw one of his missing computers come up as a share via the Back to My Mac feature of MobileMe. He clicked on the share, and explored the files of his stolen machine. You can guess what comes next. Taking a chance, he clicked on screen sharing, and saw that someone was using his Mac, checking lottery numbers on a web page. Jim didn't want to take control of the Mac, so he just watched, fascinated. Later, when activity on his missing computer stopped, he went to the network panel and grabbed an IP address, and took a screen shot of it. This morning, he saw someone applying for a job online using the stolen laptop, and Jim now has the Social Security number, address and phone number used on the job application. Jim speculates it is possible the machine has been sold to someone and that is who was applying for the job. Or it could still be with the crooks. He's contacted the police, and we don't know how this saga ends yet, but we'll let you know how it all works out. So far we've got a pretty smart victim and some really dumb crooks. Jim says he is sure he'll be renewing MobileMe when it's time. Details at 11. [Thanks to 'Jim' for sharing his experience with all of us]
Ask TUAW: Lotus Notes to iPhone, Time Capsule storage, uninstalling Haxies, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column! This time we've got questions on syncing an iPhone with Lotus Notes, expanding storage on a Time Capsule, preventing iCal event invitation emails, uninstalling Haxies, and more As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.
Take Control of Back to My Mac / Screen Sharing in Leopard
Glenn Fleishman of Macworld, Wi-Fi Networking News and TidBITS fame has written two new Leopard ebooks, both published today by Take Control Books. The new titles, Take Control of Back to My Mac and Take Control of Screen Sharing in Leopard, are part of the popular Take Control ebook series. Take Control of Back to My Mac provides many tips on how to get .Mac's MobileMe's problematic remote access service up and working for you, while Take Control of Screen Sharing in Leopard discusses the many tools available for sharing your Mac screen with others. The books are $10 each, but if you purchase both ebooks and enter CPN006780611BUN as a coupon code, you'll get an immediate $5 discount. There's no excuse to suffer in silence with Back to My Mac anymore!In the interest of disclosure, I've written two titles for Take Control Books, neither of which are discussed in this post.[Via TidBITS]
Back To My Mac alternative: TeamViewer
Back To My Mac got you down? After the 10.5.3 update, all BTMM is telling me is what I already know -- my Comcast-supplied router is old and doesn't support NAT-PMP or UPnP. iChat Screen Sharing works, but really needs someone on the other end of the connection to activate it. Yeah, Timbuktu has been available for years, but who knows what Motorola is going to do with it in the future? MacHelpMate is wonderful for supporting clients, but what if I just want to access my own Mac when I'm on the road?TeamViewer is a popular GoToMyPC-like app that was Windows-only until May 28th, when the Mac client was announced. The application is free for personal use, which is nice for those of us who want to get "Back to our Macs" but can't get BTMM to work or don't have .Mac accounts. I gave the freebie service a test last night, accessing my home iMac from my MacBook Air over a Sprint Mobile Broadband connection. Setup was simple: I installed the application on both Macs, then wrote down the ID and password generated by TeamViewer on the iMac. I left TeamViewer running on the iMac, then went out to dinner. While enjoying a few beers, I popped open the MBA and fired up TeamViewer. I told it to connect to my iMac, gave it the ID and password, and was rewarded with complete control of my machine at home. TeamViewer works well for remote control, file transfers, and blasting presentations out to co-workers. For commercial use, TeamViewer sells licenses varying from $249 for six months, or an unlimited license for $1399. If you're a system admin who needs to control both Macs and PCs remotely, TeamViewer may be the app for you. Download TeamViewer here and see if it works for you, too!Note: Quite a few commenters (and our own Mike Rose) also recommend LogMeIn as a free/paid option for remote control of both Macs and PCs.
Stolen laptop recovered with Back To My Mac
Here's a little story for you: An Apple Store employee had a party in her apartment. A couple weeks later her place was cleared out to the tune of about $5,000 worth of electronics, including her new Mac. Days later, a friend sees that she's online and alerts the Mac's rightful owner. Since she was running Leopard with Back to My Mac, owner-girl logged in remotely and activated Photo Booth via the screen-share function. And what do you know, it turned out that the thieves were some "friends" who were at the party a few weeks back. She took the photos to the cops and -- voila -- busted! The thieves, Edmon Shahikian, 23, and Ian Frias, 20, both of the Bronx, have been charged with second-degree burglary and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. Go go crafty nerdy girl![Via TUAW]
Back to My Mac not working? Apple knows.
Back to My Mac is one of those 'wow' features of Leopard. It lets you connect, securely, to a remote Mac (running Leopard) and access files and control it from any other internet-connected Mac (which also has to be running Leopard). At least, that's what it is supposed to do. Many people, including scores of TUAW readers, are finding that Back to My Mac is fickle at best. It seems flummoxed by most router setups, and some people without complicated home networks are finding Back to My Mac performance spotty at best.TidBits reports that Apple is aware of the problem (we should hope so!) and is working on it. Apple even responded to someone who reported a problem to assure them that a fix is in the works and should be available in the coming weeks.As Glenn Fleishman points out, Apple usually doesn't admit to this kind of thing. Is this the dawn of a new, open era in Apple's dealings with customers? I doubt it, but I sure hope so. Either way, Back To My Mac users, or people who would like to use Back To My Mac, should expect a more pleasant experience in a few weeks.
Use Back to My Mac without .Mac
As far as "Back to My Mac" is concerned, Apple presents it as a .Mac-only enhancement. Melvin Rivera pointed us to his blog post showing how to use Back to My Mac with iChat. This technique isn't for the faint of heart. It involves editing system preferences, modifying AppleScript, and causing your computer to always stay awake. Other than that, it's a great way to get around the Back to My Mac limitations and use your computer remotely.
Apple posts Back to My Mac information
It looks like .Mac subscribers are going to get a little more out of Leopard than the rest of us. .Mac's Back to My Mac feature is new in Leopard, and is pretty neat. Basically, it allows you to connect to a remote Mac over the Internet and access files or log into the Mac remotely. I imagine this is being done with some sort of dynamic DNS (.Mac keeps track of your remote Mac's IP address and allows you to connect to it).There is a video demoing the feature on its .Mac page, so go check it out.
