Easy cheap way to administer a standalone iMac over the internet

I have an iMac G5 running Tiger and wish to administer and manage my father's iMac G5 also running Tiger, over the internet, rather than having to physically travel to his place everytime he has a difficuly with his system.
I will only be using this to manage 1 computer (not a network) so I simply need to be able to log into his machine as administrator and check logs, manage software versions etc.
What cost effective software solution do recommend to perform this task (I understand that Apple Remote Desktop will do this easily, but is more feature rich and expensive than what I probably need).
Cheers
Steve

Easily done. One way is with OSXvnc/Chicken of the Sea. OSXvnc is a small vnc server application (open source) that you'll put on your parent's machine. Chicken of the Sea is the vnc viewer app that you will put on your machine and will open every time your parents call for help. Setup is fairly straight-forward, even for someone new to the concept. These can be downloaded from versiontracker.com and macupdate.com.
Another way to do this is with the slightly more capable Vine viewer/server package from Redstone Software. Apparently just released and available for downloading and trying. The server part is simply an upgraded version of the OSXvnc app. It's free (and also available on versiontracker, etc.). The viewer part costs 19.95 through November (I think), but it is much easier to use than Chicken of the Sea and allows you to copy and paste files between machines.
https://www.redstonesoftware.com/products/vine/viewer/index.html
One caveat: I have not tried these remotely myself -- only on the ethernet network here at home, consisting of three macs -- but I've been told they can connect distant machines as well. Try these, and if you can get any of them to work remotely, please let us (me!) know.
One option that costs more than these mostly free offerings (but considerably less than Apple Remote Desktop!) is Netopia's Timbuktu Pro 8. You'll need to buy a copy for each machine (twin-pack download for 180 dollars), but they do advertise remote connections via the Internet. They have a two-week demo that you can try before you buy. It also has some kind of Skype integration that makes for easier connections.
http://www.netopia.com/software/products/tb2/mac/

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I have a program (MacPractice) on my iMac. It's running the server program while my MacBook Air is running the client software which has to be connected via the wireless (last Gen Time machine) in my office to function. What do I need to do to be able to access my iMac over the internet when I'm out of the office? I was told that I would need to set up a DNS (?) address to log in. I use a Comcast internet modem which goes through my Time Machine wireless router to my iMac. Is this even possible to do with the current setup?

Ok, in this case your iMac will be performing as an application server. As such, it will need to be "reachable" from the Internet. This is typically done in one of two ways: 1) It is assigned a static Public IP address, or 2) It is assigned a static Private IP address.
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Can some one tell me what would be the best and simplest way to connect from my laptop to another laptop through the internet?
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Is there a way to configure Snow Leopard to allow for internet but not network access?
Well, 'internet' is 'network access' so at one level your question makes no sense.
If, on the other hand, what you want to do is segregate your Mac from the other machines then that's a different issue. There are numerous ways of doing that, but most would involve some level of interaction with the network administrators. Given their ana^H^H^H attitude towards Macs that may be an issue.
The best way would be to setup a separate VLAN for the Mac. This will create a separate logical network within the company network with only this Mac and the network router in it. No PC would see the Mac, and the Mac wouldn't be scarred by seeing all those PCs. This cannot be done without buy-in from the network admins, though.
A step down from that would be to use one PC in the network as a gateway to the rest of the network. The Mac would talk to this PC, and the PC would pass the data out to the rest of the network. This would require admin rights on the PC, though, which you may or may not have (I've seen a lot of corporate networks… :: shudder ::)
The last option would be to setup an entirely separate internet connection for the Mac but there are logistical issues there, too.
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The Goal: Wake up a sleeping Intel-iMac, running Tiger 10.4.11 with a MacBook laptop running Leopard 10.5.4. And then, using the MacBook, I want to gain access to all the files in the iMac and be able to read/write/copy the files on to the MacBook.
The Catch: I need to do this, remotely, outside my airport express LAN network, through an internet connection miles away from the iMac.
My Current Set Up:
Home Base- the iMac, running Tiger, is connected to the internet via ethernet running through a D-Link 5 port ethernet router. The iMac is running OS 10.4.11. The home base internet provider is Time Warner Cable with a dynamic IP address that changes daily. I pay about $35 a month for this internet cable service. To get a permanent IP address would make me a commercial account that would cost me $95 per month.
Remote Base- the MacBook, running Leopard, is connected to the internet via a Belkin wireless router. The internet provider is AT&T DSL
The Settings on the iMac:
I have a password for both the iMac and a different password for the airport connection.
In the iMac System Preferences/Sharing I have Personal File Sharing on.
Remote Login on.
Firewall is On.
Internet Sharing is off.
Under the Network Settings on the iMac, the location is Automatic. Under the Network Port Configurations: Bluetooth, Built-in Ethernet, Built-in Firewire and Airport are all checked and active.
The MacBook has a WakeupLan application installed.
What settings do I need to change in order to reach my goal?
Do I need to download any other software such as a VNC client?
Which VNC client should I use?
Is the VNC client difficult to use?
I know there are services such as gotomypc.com but they only work for PC computers and those computers need to be on and awake in order to access them. Plus those services cost about $180 a year.
I’m looking for something much cheaper but still simple to use.
Any detailed help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Panther

The answer is possibly.
On the Mac you want to wake, make sure that you have Wake-on-LAN enabled (network preferences), and record the hardware (MAC) address of the machine. You will need that later.
Next, you need to enable remote login on your Mac. This actually turns on SSH. By default, this means that you can login to it, via terminal, using 'ssh' and your username and password. While SSH is pretty secure, using a username and password based login is still not very good. You should read the SSH documentation or look for tutorials on the Net on how to create an encryption key and switch SSH to using only key-based log-ins. Guessing a 2Kb encryption key is not going to be practical for most people.
You will also want to go to dyndns.org and register your computer and download a dyndns client (unless your router has that built-in -- many do). DynDNS.org offers a service whereby your computer or router can automatically update it's IP address in DNS. You will need to register a domain name, but from the standpoint of most applications, it will be as if you get a static IP address (the DNS entry will change whenever you are assigned a new IP).
After you've done that, you need to setup your router to forward a UDP port (7 or 9) from the outside to the broadcast address of your LAN. The broadcast address is the IP address of your machine, with the last number replaced with 255. For example, if your iMac has IP address 192.168.1.100, the broadcast address is 192.168.1.255.
Once you've got that going...
On the Macbook you need to install one of the various Wake-on-LAN applications (there are a number of them for OS X - pick one that let's you send the wake signal across the Internet). Configure the Wake-on-LAN program to use the IP address of your router, the port you selected above, and the machine address of your Mac. You can test it now by sleeping your Mac and trying to wake it up. Keep in mind, some routers and switches simply drop WoL packets. If this is the case, you're just out of luck.
On the iMac, make sure that you enable screen-sharing (sharing preferences), which enables OS X-built-in VNC server.
On the Macbook, install Chicken of the VNC or another VNC client.
To connect, first, use the Wake-on-LAN utility to send the wake-up request to the sleeping computer. Wait a few seconds for it to wake, then attempt to connect via SSH. You will want to forward VNC through your SSH connection like so (in Terminal):
*ssh -C -L 5900:localhost:5900 [email protected]*
... when you are logged in, start the VNC client, and connect to 'localhost'. Because you've forwarded the VNC port to the remote machine, it will go though SSH and connect to VNC on the remote machine.
The practical upshot is that you will have a highly secure login to your remote computer on-demand.

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I have a rather broad question: my in-laws want to install Office 2008 onto an iBook G4. Unfortunately, the G4 only has a CD-ROM drive (ie, read-only), and the Office 2008 install media is DVD-ROM.
They have a new iMac (onto which Office 2008 has already been successfully installed), and my suspicion is that you can share the install disk over the network, but I can't seem to find any detailed instructions on how to do so. I am (unfortunately) Mac-less at the moment, so I can't experiment myself, and my in-laws are about 2,000 miles away, so I can't just pop over and play around until something works.
Anyone have any guidance on how to use the DVD drive on one machine as a way to install on another over the network?
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Don't worry, no licensing issues as it's the Student/Home edition of Office 2008; you're entitled to install it on up to three machines.

Go to System Preferences/Sharing and make sure that DVD or CD Sharing is checked. Ensure both Macs are connected to the same network. Insert the Office 2008 DVD into the Mac with the DVD drive. Open a finder window on the Mac without the DVD drive connect to the other machine. You should see the Office 2008 DVD in the finder window and you can install from here.

My iMac drops the internet connection but mantains the wi-fi network.

I have a late 2011, 2.7GHz Intel Core i5, 27" iMac with 4GB Ram. When I power up the computer everything goes great, but after 3 or 4 hours (top) the internet connection stops working; and by this I DO NOT MEAN that the network utility turns off, or that it doesn't detect any netwoks. On the contrary, the computer stays connected to the wi-fi network and detects everything, but it simply has no internet connection; it even stops communicating with my iphone through itunes (with the wi-fi sync option), and crashes LAN games when i try to play at home. When this occured for the first times I just turned off and back on the network utility, but the problem continued and I had to keep turning off and on the network (it wouldn't stay connected for more than 5 minutes). I checked with my laptop (the last alluminum macbook ever available, as well as with my mom's black macbook) when the internet stopped working in the iMac (just to check that there were no issues regarding my ISP) and the internet connection just worked great in it, and it didn't drop at all! It also worked perfectly with my dad's windows XP dinosaur laptop.
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I've been an avid apple user for almost 10 years now, and this is the first time I encounter this type of problem (it's my first iMac), so I'm pretty much out of logical options. I've already moved my router closer to the computer, I moved my wi-fi connection to the top of the list in the network utility.
I even had to re-write this whole message again because i clicked on "Post message" and it had no internet connection, so it displayed a no-internet alert in my browser.............
PLEASE! HELP!!!!
PS: all my apple gadgets are always up to date.

I FINALLY SOLVED THIS ISSUE!!!!
New routers have "mixed" modes for your network; this means that it will automatically choose the best option between wireless-B, wireless-G and wireless-N network modes. I used to experience this issue using the 2.4 GHz. mixed mode wireless network.
Thankfully, my router can create 2 networks: a 2.4 GHz. network and a 5 GHz. network.
When I randomly changed this value to "use only wireless-B and wireless-G" trying to fix an issue with a wi-fi expander, the iMac wi-fi issue dissapeared! I tried it with wireless-N only, but it didn't work.
So, finally, I have a 2.4 GHz network with only wireless-B and wireless-G modes which works PERFECT with the iMac, and a 5 GHz. network with a mixed* wireless mode for everything else mode.
*PD: by "mixed" mode it means that the router will automatically choose between B, G and N network modes as it fits better.

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Easy cheap way to administer a standalone iMac over the internet

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