Thanks Godfrey
I'm curious about remote desktop and how that works.
Doesn't the remote computer (in this case the mini) still need a display, keyboard,mouse to allow access?
Is it something where you would need the keyboard and monitor to set but and then, once you have it set up permissions or reply codes are not required anymore?
My understanding is "permission" is required for each session although, I have limited experience.
Thanks for your reply. You seem to be our Mac go to guy on RFF.
Not as much as I once was ... My work has migrated well away from user-level consulting support, where it once was. I'm too involved in other aspects of software development and tools now.
Here's the Apple Remote Desktop page:
http://www.apple.com/remotedesktop/
And the ARD support page:
http://www.apple.com/support/remotedesktop/
There's lots of info there and pointed to. I'm not an expert in its use, although I've used it occasionally.
If you use the stripped down version of ARD that's included in OS X (System Preferences > Sharing icon), you can turn on Screen Sharing. I think in that case the assumption is that the 'remote' system is a fully configured setup (display, keyboard, mouse, etc). But I believe the ARD package allows you to run systems that are configured and then set to run headless, usually doing server type work.
You will almost certainly need to connect a system to display, keyboard, and mouse at least once to do the basic configuration and setup. But once that's done, it should allow you to run completely headless and armless. All the devices are plug and play so a rack of Mac mini systems all configured with ARD makes for an economical way to run a bunch of different computers doing different things from a single workstation.
I question the sensibility of doing this for a "scanning server," however. Scanning requires direct interaction with the scanner and the media you're scanning, so it's difficult to imagine why you would go to the effort of setting up a remote control connection when you have to keep walking back and forth to the scanner near that system to handle loading and unloading media. Scanners are tricksy, malevolent things that love to ask you to do something to them...
It makes more sense to either have a "scanning station" that you do the scanning on and put the files onto a file server so your other systems can access them, or just roll the scanner over to where you're sitting and work with it for when you need it.
G
