BONUS TIP #3: Super-Easy Setup

ARD has a nifty easy-install feature that sets up the client Macs for you—the only catch is that you have to get an installer package onto each Mac, either via an older ARD setup or by distributing it on CD. From ARD on the admin Mac, select File > Create Client Installer. A handy assistant appears to prompt you through the available access, privacy, and control settings—everything that we covered in the manual setup (Steps 1 and 2). Your client installer can even create a new ARD admin user account on the client machines for you. The final step of the assistant saves the client-installer package to your desktop or wherever you specify. Now you can put the package on each client manually, or you can click ARD's Install icon, select a target client (or clients) to send the installer to, then drag your install package from the Desktop into ARD's Pakages list. Press Install to create your new ARD setup on each client Mac.

Create a Client Installer to save setup time.

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BONUS TIP #4: Firewall Follies

If you're using ARD to access an offsite Mac, you may have to adjust any network firewalls between that remote Mac and your admin Mac. If the remote Mac is plugged directly into the Internet via a cable or DSL modem, simply enabling Remote Desktop access on the Mac will open the appropriate ports in the Mac's firewall. If that remote Mac is on a home or office network, you'll need to punch holes in the network's firewall - we can't tell you how to do it for every different configuration out there, but we can tell you which ports you need opened: 3283 and 5900, each for both TCP and UDP traffic.