Another computer problem from a third party website where by I earn supplemental income answering computer related questions. This one deals with remote disc on a Macintosh computer. Below is quoted verbatim the initial question.
I see a “remote disc” on my Finder window. I can’t eject it. What is a “remote disc”?
2 or 3 days ago I noticed it. It just appeared. I contacted a friend who said something about it was just a link to another Mac and not to worry about, but I have never seen it before.
I just got upgrade to High Sierra. My previous OS was out of date. How do I eject the remote disc or what do I do to verify it is not harmful?
This individual was using a Macbook professional with Macintosh operating system High Sierra 10.13.6. Here is my initial response quoted verbatim. You cannot eject it because it is a feature to allow a remote computer to share their optical drive.
It is not a security problem on your computer because your computer is not sharing any devices. It probably showed up when you upgraded to high sierra. I would not worry about it.
You can read the full explanation directly from this Apple support article. Remote disc Mac just allows you the ability to use another computer’s optical drive if your Macintosh does not have one installed. You can even access optical drives shared by Microsoft Windows computers.
This solves the problem of not having an optical drive when needing to install software off of a compact disc or DVD drive. If your Macintosh computer already has an optical drive installed, then you would not see this feature. It is not a security risk, but no files or data are being shared from your Macintosh.
No where in their official article does it stipulate that you can access a remote optical drive from a computer with Linux operating system. In order to get the Microsoft Windows operating system to share the optical drive to a Macintosh, you must download and install a small piece of software, onto your Microsoft Windows computer. This software then can communicate with your Macintosh.
I see this as a common problem now on this third party website where I support computer endusers. They purchase physical software on CD, DVD, or USB and then find out that their Macintosh computer does not have an optical drive. Here is a tip.
Always verify first what type of hardware you have. When purchasing software on physical media, make certain that you have an optical drive. This will obviously save you time and money.
Luckily for some Macintosh endusers, they can still access an optical drive remotely.