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He is the main author of Mac OS X Server Administration, having written Parts I through VI. (formally an Apple Systems Engineer), is a Mac OS X consultant and trainer specializing in cross-platform directory services integration. Michael Bartosh, President of 4am Media, Inc. I found one specific issue–the /etc/pf.anchors/com.apple file had been returned to its default version–and also restarted the VPN service, and everything seems to be working well once again. Essential Mac OS X Panther Server Administration. I’d been having some minor problems with the VPN since updating to 10.11, so I walked back through these steps to see if I could isolate the problems.
Now the two have joined forces once again to update the guide for El Capitan.
My guide through that process was an excellent walkthrough hosted by Macminicolo and authored by Rusty Ross. (Great if you want to make sure that you maintain a secure connection while on public Wi-Fi.) It also lets me access some types of media that iTunes doesn’t store in the cloud by default, such as audiobooks.A few months back I ran through using OS X Server on your Mac to set up a VPN, which allows you not only to access computers on your local network while you’re out and about, but also enables forwarding of all Internet traffic through the VPN connection.
In this day and age, what self-respecting server doesn’t serve up media? I have a full copy of my iTunes Library on my Mac mini, and in those cases where iCloud Music Library is a bit under the weather, I can use iTunes Home Sharing to stream from my mini to my iOS devices and Macs alike. (Before I started using Screens, I sometimes used to screen share into my Mac mini, and then screen share from there into my iMac, since my iMac wasn’t directly accessible.) Beyond the ability to access programs on the remote Mac, I’ve also availed myself of another benefit: If you have a desktop Mac that’s turned on and has a FaceTime camera, you can remotely launch Photo Booth on it to take a look around your home while you’re, say, on vacation. If you know your way around a little firewall trickery, you can use OS X’s built-in screen sharing to the same effect. Sometimes I want to check on an app that’s running on one of my computers, and for that I turn to the invaluable Screens by Edovia.
Screens lets you store connections to multiple computers, and can even provide a screenshot of their last known state. In some cases it might be slow, but it does help protect my data when I’m using a spurious Wi-Fi network. I’ve also taken the somewhat more complex step of setting up OS X Server to host a Virtual Private Network (VPN)-essentially an encrypted tunnel that lets me securely route my data and my Internet connection back through my home network. These services allow me to quickly interact with my home machine as well as download files to whatever Mac or iOS device I happen to have with me at the time. Most basic is the Secure Shell (SSH) command line interface (OS X calls it “Remote Login” in the Sharing system preferences pane) and its associated Secure FTP (SFTP) file transfer service. I maintain several different services to let me access my home machines.