Screen Sharing app question

Software
1

I have a Mac mini that I am going to use in a headless mode connected to ethernet. The name of the mini is macminifs and is configured to allow screen sharing. When I open the Screen Sharing app on another Mac on the network, “All Connections” show 2 Macs both named macminifs. One is configured with the server address: macminifs._rfb._tcp.local and the other: macminifs.local. When I select “Network”, the one configured as macminifs.local. is shown.

Both configurations work fine. Why do I have 2 different server addresses? Is one better than the other?

Any thoughts?

2

RFB (Remote Frame Buffer) is “part” of VNC (Virtual Network Computing)
which is what Screen Sharing uses under the covers.

Are you using a static ip or DHCP reservation on your “remote” Mac Mini?

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3

As far as I can tell, I’m using DHCP. On the Ethernet settings “TCP/IP” under “Configure IPv4” it shows using DHCP. Below it shows the ability to renew DHCP Lease if I choose to do so.

I use a Unifi router, if that makes any difference. this device does not have static IP checked.

4

It’s considered to be best practice to assign each piece of infrastructure
a static address. You can either do this through your router interface
or through macOS system settings (Router is better, make a DHCP
reservation) This way you minimize the need for a DNS lookup for
“my mini” and are connecting to “this ip”.

While further debug would be necessary, RFB is actually the “GUI”
part of of your remote login request, so I suspect mDNS (Bonjour)
is casting a wider net than if it were looking for a specific IP. address.

Try it with ip address and let us know please

5

I will try to set a static address in my Unifi router. Will follow-up.

Thank you for your help.

6

That’s for ongoing. Try with just the ip address and see if you get the RFB shadow.
As you know vnc is a url schema, so you could use Safari and type
vnc://ipadress:port. Something like vnc://192.168.1.125 (whatever) and get
the remote host login.

You will want to keep your DHCP reservation out of your usual DHCP range
So if you set your DHCP range 192.168.1.5 - 192.168.1.100 (whatever) set
your remote host (via DHCP reservation) to 192.168.1.200 (whatever)
This way 96 devices could vary addresses, BUT your remote mini will
always be at 192.168.1.200 (whatever)

2 Likes
7

Sorry it was late, but to better answer your question, when I mentioned that
vnc (screen sharing) was a url schema? Think of macminifs.local as the IP
ADDRESS section and macminifs._rfb._tcp.local as the PORT section…

The address (macminifs.local) will give access to ALL services ssh, ftp, rfb,
etc., while the macminis_rfb.tcp.local will give access only to RFB services
RFB = Screen Sharing. So, I would stick with macminfs.local as the is the

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8

… …as that is the standard way to talk to Macs on a network.

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9

I really appreciate you following up with this. I’ve been testing many things this morning. I discovered that if I click on “Network” in my sidebar and login into the remote Mac, it always uses RFB and adds an icon for this to “All Connections” in the Screen Sharing app. So if I use the Screen Sharing app I get to choose the method of login and will choose the method you suggested.

Again, thank you for taking the time to help me understand this.