ARD in a classroom

I work at a college and we have faculty that are trying to use ARD 3.0 to share fairly large graphic design files between students and themselves, as well as display their screens or their student's screens to the entire class's screens and they have been freezing or crashing. They said that last year on ARD 2.0 things were much better. The only thing that has changed is the upgrade to ARD 3.0 Has anyone experienced this and do you have any advice? Is it file size related, network or ARD 3.0?

Welcome to the Discussions kbarclay,
1. I'd update to v. 3.2
2. I'd also use a reduced color setting and not the highest.
Question is when do the freezes occur? I know that fast clickers will cause it to throw errors and crash. There should be time allowed between tasks. Only time I see a problem is when I'm forced to do manual updates and stop controlling one system then jump straight into another. (It takes doing this for 6-10 systems in rapid succession for this to cause a problem.) Otherwise, I haven't seen issues. I know that when we had DNS problems from our IT department.. it would cause ARD (2.x) to crash ALL the time. Now that they have the directory working correctly things work much better.

Similar Messages

Cannot observe more than 12 computers at a time in ARD 3.7.1

I am currently running 10.9.4 on 17 iMacs (2014) and am using ARD 3.7.2 (Server Side) and 3.7.1 (Client Side) in my classroom.
I am trying to observe (have a real-time view) of 16 of the iMacs in one window at the same time. There are options to observe up to 50 (I assume at the same time as it strikes me as odd to have to select the number of macs I want to observe in total when I can do that directly form the main window by highlighting as many as I want and hitting observe.) The problem is that no matter how big I make the window, lower the quality of the view, or disable addition information such as computer name, I cannot get more that 12 to show at a time. I am able to swap between pages only if I select to view 12 or less. If select to view more than 12, the "Play Forward" "Stop" and "Play Backward" icons grey out and become un-usable.
Has anyone encountered this problem and found a way to resolve it? I really need to see all the computers at once to keep an eye on things.

It seems the maximum number of copies possible in Reader X is indeed 999. You can request Adobe to change that.
A temporary workaround could be to print using a script and a loop, but that might over-flow the printer since it will not be 1 command to print 1000 times, but 1000 commands to print 1 time, for example.

New iMac and ARD 2

I just received my brand new iMac in my classroom. I used a copy of Remote Desktop that I had from my previous machine. I installed ARD 2 and now the computer will no longer boot up. I am stuck at a white (grayish) screen and can't do anything. Any advice?

Ok I am now able to start the machine but when I try to run Remote Desktop I get an error that tells me to run Software Update cause my software is out of date. I have done this but it finds no updates. Any ideas or is ARD 2 just not going to work for me?

Strange Problem with ARD 2.2 *Please Help*

Strange Problem with ARD 2.2 (2 problems)
We have a classroom lab with 14 G5 PPC's running 10.4.11 with ARD 2.2 clients installed.
We controlled all the G5's from a PPC Mac Mini running 10.4.11 with ARD 2.2, this was our Admin machine in our server room.
We then added a teachers machine in the lab, an iMac PPC running 10.4.11 and ARD 2.2 also with admin status.
Everything was working fine!
We then upgraded the iMac PPC to an iMac Intel with 10.4.11. We installed ARD 2.2 admin and did the intel intergration.
Everything worked fine.
The iMac PPC was moved to another location, ARD was removed following instructions on the Apple website telling us to delete the application then run some terminal commands to remove pref's.
Then our Intel iMac screen broke, we had the "lines" problem so bad only half the screen was visible. Long story short Apple wanted to charge us almost half the cost of the machine (no Applecare as it was a donated machine) to repair the screen!
So we moved the PPC iMac back into the lab, re-install ARD 2.2.
Now here is the problem, I can control, observe and run almost any command but cannot share with any computer!
2nd,the Mac Mini Tech computer is running fine but cannot control or observe the PPC iMac teacher machine (we were able to do this before) I can even share the Mac Mini with the iMac but cannot observe or control!!
Any ideas?

"With ARD you have to enable option to control a Mac which has ARD running on it as opposed to remotely controlling normal client Mac."
I'm not sure I understand, do you mean in System Pref's under sharing? Or is there somewhere else I need to enable to control?
Seems like a hassle to reinstall the entire OS just to fix this problem, I am able to do everything else, except observe from one admin to another, and control from 1 admin to clients.
thanks

ARD "connection failed to" problem

Hi if someone could help me with this.
I am trying to connect to a Mac Pro from a MacBook Pro over internet. I can observe and control in one direction, from the MBP to the MP over the internet, yet not the other way.
I have port forwared the ports.
The list shows the Current Status perfectly well, and what app is in focus. It updates very quickly, so it seems the ARD on the MBP is going through the router just fine.
I've tried the terminal kickstart commands many times. I've deleted and re-added users in the access fields.
I've tried turning off and on Remote Management many times. That too shows correctly in the status but after coming back as Available , it cannot connect.
Any ideas what I could be doing wrong?
PS, I have successfully connected to my father in laws Mac by setting up port forwarding on his router/ modem and it works fine there too.
I think I was able to connect before back to the MP but it isn't working now. That was probably a year ago though last time it was working towards my home Mac Pro.

Wow! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
Classroom teacher here and this just solved the frustrationg mystery for why our 5 new Mac minis could recieve files I sent but could not be viewed. "Connection Failed" was driving me crazy! This solved it for us too. Thank you Sooooo much!

ARD 2.2 Admin Crashes When Scanning Local Network

Out of the blue, my ARD Admin application began to crash when scanning the Local Network.
I deleted the application's preferences file (com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist) and retried with the same results.
Installed ARD admin application on a different machine with a fresh 10.4.2 OS install and it is still crashing whilst scanning.
My Network Engineers swears that nothing has changed recently on the network.
Wondering if anyone else has seen this.

I was having the same problem until this morning, and one of my associates in a neighbor district discovered the problem. ARD 2.2 is VERY concerned about DNS entries.
We are using OS X Server for our DNS, and what I did was create a bogus machine entry for each subnet. Thus, if I wanted to search our senior high lab subnet (10.136.43.x) I created an entry for 10.136.43.0. There is no physical machine at that address, but it forces OS X Server to create an IN-ADDR.ARPA record for that subnet. I found that to be a lot easier than manually editing the associated DNS files.
It does work superbly. Three other folks in our district with ARD crashes tried doing searches and they were all successful. Adding the IN-ADDR.ARPA entries wasn't time consuming as we don't have a ton of subnets . We've defined standards for where machines should be as follows:
(Device: Range)
Switches: 10.x.1.100-150
Printers: 10.x.2.1-50
DHCP: 10.x.2.150-254
Classrooms: 10.x.3.1-254
Labs: 10.x.4.1-100
Media Center: 10.x.4.101-150
The junior high and high school are a bit different because they have more lab machines, but we try to stick to the basic scheme. This works great for us because 1) it allows us to know where devices should appear and 2) it greatly limits the range ARD must scan to pick up all machines of a particular kind (e.g. classroom or lab). We have a bit of reconfiguration to do because we should be able to have static classroom and DHCP units all within the 10.x.3 subnet, but that will be taken care of over the course of this year.
I hope this helps some folks.

How to backup ARD database/settings/etc

I'm about to test Boot Camp on my one-and-only iMac (others are in classrooms and I can't trash them) and would like to know how to backup my ARD database, its settings, and the scripts, etc, that I have created in ARD before testing Boot Camp.
How do I completely backup (and restore) ARD?

In your home folder Library/Preferences/ you want to back up
com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist
(To verify that this is the file, try making a change to your ARD Admin setup, say create a new list, and note that the file changes its date modified.)

*Can ARD restrict students from using particular programs?

I am a new high school digital arts teacher running ARD 3 in my classroom and have trouble with students being distracted with the internet. Is there any way to restrict students from using Explorer and Safari temporarily (and still keep the network connection) so they can focus on their work and not on their social lives?
Is it possible? If not, any suggestions about what I should do or use?
Thanks! ___________________UPDATE:
____>
Thankfully, I received the following sugesstion from a helpful user.
Can someone explain this in layman's terms?
I've never used UNIX but am willing to try.
"If you don't mind messing with the firewall settings of your clients, you could try something like this: send (as root) the unix command
ipfw add 2005 deny tcp from any to any 80 out xmit en0
This should stop any request being sent via port 80, the most common port for web servers. You might want to check that there is no rule already at 2005 by issuing a 'ipfw all' to get the list of rules in force. If there is, use a different number.
To reset the firewall, either reboot the clients (which loads the default firewall rules, without your changes) or send (as root)
ipfw delete 2005
(or whatever number you used. You could save these two commands as Saved Tasks to have them ready whenever you need them."
Clarity would be much appreciated. Thanks All!

Hello Elle,
I hear you. I'm a Graphic Communications teacher that had the very same problem. I solved it by getting rid of Explorer and turning on the parental controls in Safari within the 10.4 student permissions. Then I entered web sites into Safari that pertain to the subject of my class work. After about a week of student complaining the students accepted the fact their is no personal web surfing and now focus their attention on their work. And once again students that come into my classroom before and after school work on their projects instead of myspace.com, etc. Keep in mind the students still have access to the internet, but only to the web sites you setup.
Another way of doing it if you want to give student free time to surf the web is to setup two sets of permissions, if you are familar with this. One set gives students access to the browsers and the other does not. The permission file for controlling student access is located in /Library/Managed Preferences/in my case a folder named student/com.apple.applicationaccess.plist. Create two folders on your computer and put a copy of each preference file into them. Using Remote Desktop, logout from each of the student computers and then using the Copy Items command and Place items in: copy the permission file of your choice to: /Library/Managed Preferences/in my case a folder named student. When the students login they will be controlled by the permission file you just sent.
I'm also very good at altering system files that prevent students from tampering with the way I setup their computers. Let me know if I can assist you with other problems, or the above problem if you should have further questions.
From a fellow teacher,
Dennis
Mac OS X (10.4.6)

How do I change parental controls on multiple machines through ARD

I am trying to manage 36 new iMacs in a high school classroom setting. I need to adjust the parental controls on all 36 machines so that they all have the same restrictions. I am running ARD but cannot figure out how to do that... any ideas?
Billy Woody
EVHS High

You could probably write a UNIX script that would pull from a list of MAC addresses for each computer and send the appropriate IP address, but unless you have a lot of computers you need to change, writing such a script may be more work than just sending the commands individually.
Of course if you change the IP address on a computer you're working with via ARD, you'll sort of be pulling the ladder out from under yourself, so the task will never report as completed. You'll need to quit it manually and re-add the systems. This may also affect running of a script for further systems; I've not tried to change IP addresses en masse so I don't know.
Regards.

ARD 2 and Brand New iMac

I just received my brand new iMac in my classroom. I used a copy of Remote Desktop that I had from my previous machine. I installed ARD 2 and now the computer will no longer boot up. I am stuck at a white (grayish) screen and can't do anything. Any advice?

Check the first article at http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1007 which is the ARD forum.

Please advise me on my classroom network

In the school where I teach, we hope to use Remote Desktop to manage a classroom network of refurbished Clamshell G3s (256meg RAM) running Panther. The teacher server is a G5. Please let me know if we need a prior version of Remote Desktop because the Clamshells are so old, and I don't want to put Tiger on them because their hard-drives are puny, and Tiger is too RAM hungry. I have been on a Mac since 1987, but this is my first attempt at anything resembling a Network. Is there an earlier version of remote desktop that might be more advised than 3? Does the teacher computer require the OS 10 server version to run Remote Desktop? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. We think that the refurbished old Mac laptops could be a viable alternative to the X0-1 program if we can get this up and going. Thanks!

Apple Remote Desktop 3 does per the specs support clients running 10.3.9, but I've seen reports of it being less that perfectly stable and functional. With luck someone here who's run ARD with 10.3 clients will post with direct experiences.
As to Server being required, no, not at all. There's nothing in ARD that requires Mac OS X Server for any of it's functions, though if you want to run a dedicated Task Server, that does require a second system and a second copy of ARD. But you can run it on a standard version of Mac OS X.
Regards.

ARD 3.5.1 fails to copy items

I'm using ARD 3.5.1 on OS 10.6.8, and until today, I've been able to copy items to client machines with the same system without much trouble.
Suddenly, today, ARD won't copy files. That is to say, when I use the "Copy" button from the Remote Desktop window, and select one computer or a group of computers to copy a small file to, the copying process hangs at "Waiting for Item" and then fails a few seconds later. I am also not able to drag files from my computer onto the controlled computer.
Some things I have tried:
Changing the owner and location of the file I'm copying
Removing the computers from the "All Computers" list and adding them back in to the computers I control again
Quitting ARD and restarting it
Using ARD from the Server instead of my computer
Oddly, I am still about to Control and Observe.
Actually I just realized something... I'm running a copy of ARD on my laptop, but also have it installed on the teacher's station of the computer classroom I'm administering, as well as a copy installed on the server. The teacher's station copy is able to successfully copy files, while my copy and server cannot.
That said, up until a few days ago, I was able to copy files from my laptop and/or from the server.
We do have two different serial numbers for ARD, I'm not sure if that's causing the problem. I mean, it wasn't causing a problem until today.

This is a link to a previous thread with a similar problem. The solution by Scooter Magrooter of resetting the task server is the one that works best for me. Hope this helps you.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16201614#16201614

Set up for a classroom

Hello all,
We're gonna be setting up 10 iMacs for student use in the photography classroom and I'd like a few pointers for using ARD. We'd like to set it up so that each student has an account on the iMac they're assigned to. We'd also like for the only account with Administrator Access be the one we use for ARD, updating and the like. We'd like to be able to update Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and the systems themselves as effortlessly as possible. The administrator of the room also has an iMac and MacBook Pro. He'd like to be able to Administrate from both if possible.
Thanks in advance.

Hello there. I work in the tech department at a local private high school and we are an all Mac campus using ARD. We have 3 iMac labs plus all the teacher computers that we control with ARD. While I am not a unix guru or command-line expert in any way, I can offer to help you if you contact me directly.
We have ARD admin running on the teacher computer to monitor and control the student computers. Teachers do not have access to local admin rights, but can view all the student screens and/or keep an eye on what the students are doing. Our tech department can login remotely with ARD to install software, perform updates, restart computers, or "screenshare" to assist teachers remotely. Contact me and I can help you set it up.
-- Evette Ogden
Evette Ogden | Technology Assistant/ Helpdesk
Bakersfield Christian High School | 12775 Stockdale Hwy, Bakersfield, CA 93314
office 661.410.7000 ext.5532 | fax 661.410.7007
[email protected]

Track Stolen / Missing / Misplaced computer using ARD

Hi there, a teacher reported to us that one of their Macbook has gone missing from their classroom cart. ARD reported that the missing Macbook was last contacted 3 days ago. We strongly feel that the Macbook is still within the campus and was just swapped or misplaced.
Using ARD, what would be the best way to alert an admin once the missing computer reconnects to the network?
tia,
Marlon

Hi Marlon,
If security is a risk and you're wanting to protect your Macs, I'd suggest you do the following;
1. Use the Firmware Password Utility to create a firmware password - this prevents the Mac being booted from
a) The OS DVD to reformat or change passwords
b) Firewire Target mode
c) In single user mode.
Only users with the Admin password can login and disable the Firmware Password Utility. * Don't forget your Admin password *
2. Have a look at the following software which protects any Mac which has been stolen and could lead to it being located.
http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/mac/
It's easy to do the above, harder to replace a stolen machine.
Cheers,
Dan

Help With Classroom Lab Setup

Here's my current setup:
24 Stations - Mac Mini
1 Server - Mac Mini OS X 10.8
1 Teacher Station Mac Mini OS X 10.8
The 24 stations are configured to NetBoot.
Here's the problem:
I am teaching a new class that requires software that is Windows based. Which requires a component to be on a server. The company is getting back to me as to whether that can be on the Mac Mini Server or not.
I'm thinking of ditching the NetBoot altogether and using bootcamp for getting Windows on the Macs. My concern with ditching the NetBoot is that if students mess with the system (delete wrong files, change settings, etc) it won't be in order the next time they login or for that matter the next class period. Are all of the settings linked to their user account like it is with the NetBoot option? In other words, if I don't NetBoot will my computers be ok and stay that way? Will I have to install DeepFreeze and would it have to be on both boots Windows & OS X?
I currently use Apple Remote Desktop to monitor student work during class, but know ARD has many more features. Can my concerns be handled with ARD?
I can try to provide more clarification if needed. I need to make this happen very soon and would have to do it as inexpensive as possilbe. I'm looking for any help I can get. On-site help would be super awesome, but would have to be pro-bono.

I'd look at BDAqua's suggestion first. For years I used a setup similar to yours but today we have a central Windows server. After playing with several different scenerios I wound up creating a classroom account on the lab computers and use a program called MacApp Blocker to control what programs are useable by each class. Since the classroom accounts aren't admin accounts students cannot delete OS or Application files but they could delete or otherwise mess with the Library folder of their classroom account. I've not yet had this happen but it is possible. I miss the power that NetBoot provided.

ARD in a classroom

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