Guide

Connecting over SSH

Terminal access to the rented Mac from Windows or a Mac: Tailscale, an SSH key and your first login.

You connect to the rented Mac through the encrypted Tailscale network. The whole setup takes about 10 minutes, and the first hour of every rental is free, so you can set everything up in peace.

In our email with login details you get your username, the address of the Mac (it looks like 100.81.0.7) and, for remote desktop, a password. Wherever this guide says USERNAME and ADDRESS, use the values from that email.

For SSH you send us two things: the email of your Tailscale account and your public SSH key. Passwords are disabled for SSH, you log in with the key only.

Windows

Windows 10 and 11 include the SSH client, there is nothing else to install.

1. Install Tailscale

Go to tailscale.com/download, choose Windows and install the app.
Open it, click Log in and sign in with Google, Microsoft, GitHub or email. This creates your free Tailscale account.
Check that the icon at the bottom right of the taskbar shows Connected.
Send us the email address you signed in with.
Once we share the Mac with you, Tailscale sends you an invitation email. Click Accept. The Mac then appears in your list of devices in the Tailscale app.

2. Create an SSH key

Skip this step if you already have an SSH key.

Open PowerShell (click Start, type PowerShell and open it).
Run this command and press Enter three times (you can leave the key password empty):

ssh-keygen -t ed25519

Show the public key:

Get-Content $HOME\.ssh\id_ed25519.pub

Copy the whole line that starts with ssh-ed25519.

Send the key to us by email. Never send the file without .pub: that is your private key.

3. Connect

ssh USERNAME@ADDRESS

The first time you are asked Are you sure you want to continue connecting?. Type yes and press Enter.
You are logged in when you see a line ending with %. Type exit to disconnect.

Mac

1. Install Tailscale

Go to tailscale.com/download, choose macOS and install the app.
Open it and allow the VPN configuration when asked, click Log in and sign in with Google, Microsoft, GitHub, Apple or email. This creates your free Tailscale account.
Check that the icon in the menu bar at the top shows Connected.
Send us the email address you signed in with.
Once we share the Mac with you, Tailscale sends you an invitation email. Click Accept. The Mac then appears in your list of devices in the Tailscale app.

2. Create an SSH key

Skip this step if you already have an SSH key.

Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities → Terminal).
Run this command and press Enter three times (you can leave the key password empty):

ssh-keygen -t ed25519

Show the public key:

pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

The key is now in your clipboard; paste it with ⌘V.

Send the key to us by email. Never send the file without .pub: that is your private key.

3. Connect

ssh USERNAME@ADDRESS

The first time you are asked Are you sure you want to continue connecting?. Type yes and press Enter.
You are logged in when you see a line ending with %. Type exit to disconnect.

Transferring files

Run scp on your own computer, not on the rented Mac.

scp data.zip USERNAME@ADDRESS:~/
scp USERNAME@ADDRESS:~/results.zip .

The first line uploads a file to the rented Mac, the second downloads one into the current folder. Add -r to copy a whole folder.

Troubleshooting

Connection times out: check that Tailscale shows Connected and that you accepted the invitation to the shared Mac.
Permission denied (publickey) or a password prompt: your key was not used. Connect from the same computer and user account where you created the key, and check the username.
REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED: the Mac was reinstalled in the meantime. Run ssh-keygen -R ADDRESS and connect again.

When the rental ends

We permanently delete your account and all its files and stop sharing the Mac in Tailscale. Download everything you want to keep before the rental ends.

Stuck? Write to jakub@mokris.cz and attach a screenshot or the error text. We usually reply within minutes.