controlling a mac from windows?

anyone know if theres some way i can control a mac from windows, similar to using remote desktop?

i want to stick a mac on my network, but don't want to fart about with extra monitors or switches, i just want to be able to click on something from my PC and access it, including file transfers.

I have seen it but no idea what the software is called.

Looks like there are some versions of VNC server for the Mac:

http://www.realvnc.com/pipermail/vnc-list/2003-February/037644.html

http://stevek.com/VNC/OSXVnc2.html

Don't know how well they work. The PC variants are pretty good if you are on the same network, but rather inferior to RDP over a slower connection.

Couldn't you just use SSH?

i've used SSH to send commands to a server before, but wasn't aware it could do GUI control - any links on how that works?

I'm not very good with UNIX, but I recall being able to initialize X11 from within SSH. Ask O2C.

Ecky, look for Xming.

http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Xming

That's what you need to run X11 tunneling over SSH for windows.

I use it all the time to run KATE on my machine off of the university servers.

GUI's can be sorta unresponsive sometimes, especially when you first open something. After all the shit loads in its not too terrible though.

Is there a version of Timbuktu for Mac?

Yes, yes there is:
http://www.netopia.com/software/products/tb2/mac/techspecs.html

That looks like the easiest solution, all tho not free :o

Actually the funny thing is there's a VNC server built-in to OS X. If you turn on "Apple Remote Desktop" in System Preferences>Sharing, it will activate the VNC server and open port 5190 on your firewall. VNC is only for screen sharing and control though, not for file sharing, although you could always mount your shared drive or folder from within VNC, otherwise, there's no file-level copy and paste, although you can copy and paste text.

Can you access the default system using the Remote Access in windows?

The "default system"?

The one that is built into OSX would be the default...

I don't think I understand the question, but I'll try to answer what you may be asking.

If you turn on "Apple Remote Desktop" in System Preferences>Sharing, any VNC client can connect to the VNC server that is activated when you turn it on. Windows, AFAIK, doesn't have a VNC client built in. Windows Remote Desktop (is this what you were thinking of?) only works to connect to Windows machines. It uses it's own protocol, which is not based on VNC. You need a separate client, perhaps the client half of WinVNC. PC anywhere and similar products use VNC as well, or at least they used to.