HP Neoware c50?

**Geoff** · 11th March 2008, 10:31 AM

We are considering buying some of these. Has anyone seen/tried/bought this model of thin client?

http://h41306.www4.hp.com/itemDetail...4AA#design_for

**Matstones** · 17th March 2008, 01:28 PM

Neoware went bust - HP bought up the "remains" to gain access to installed customer base. As HP have their own TC products it should be safe to assume HP will phase out Neoware hardware as soon as they can, without "panicing" the Neoware user-base...

**cjohnsonuk** · 17th March 2008, 01:43 PM

We bought 10 e140s. They run a full fat client PC with just the hard disk virtualised to a central server, so fundamentally different to TS/Cirix/2x/Ericom solutions, meaning you get the benefits of a centrally managed image but with full local support for usb, local support for multimedia etc and by just rebbooting you can retask a pc with a new hard disk image allowing testing and roll back or different uses or maintaining a known environment to be much less of a problem.

HP did not have a solution like this before which is why they bought neoware to add to their inventory to fill a solution gap that NEC's VPPC and Wyse's new thin clients are addressing (wyse uses a virtual hard disk too but separates the OS image from the applications alowing more flexibility.)

The only issue is that when you go to vista the hardware may not be up to it, losing the long life cycle benefit of thin clients. As they network boot we are using ours as traditional TS thin clients (via PXE booted thinstation) until we have the virtual disks set up.

CJ

**Matstones** · 17th March 2008, 01:54 PM

...the post was about Neoware hardware - which was in fact not even manufactured or
designed by Neoware (it was made by www.bcom.com). It is hard to see what HP would want with competing and "duplicate" hardware to their own....

**cjohnsonuk** · 17th March 2008, 02:21 PM

The neoware thin client was not marketed as a ica/rdp thin client. HP bought Neoware for their disk virtualisation technology, not for the hardware. The hardware comes with a license to connect to the virtualised disk server so they're tied together really. Its not really a thin client in terms of being a low power device to deliver screen information and pass back mouse and keyboard inputs, its just a diskless PC.

The "what is a thin client" debate is discussed elsewhere. In theory it should have no local storage and network boot.

At least that's what I've read.

CJ

**Geoff** · 17th March 2008, 02:46 PM

Well I've bought one to try out. I will let everyone know if it does what I want.

**Matstones** · 17th March 2008, 03:09 PM

Geoff,

Can we send you one of our thin clients to try along side it....

Our products are unique in that they have no operating system at all (so almost no setup). We have taken the RDP/ICA client, re-written in assembly language - and loaded the code directly into the hardware, the terminal is the size of a cigarette packet and instant booting. It comes with a VESA mounting bracket to fit to rear of monitor - so take up zero desk space...

If we can send you a no obligation eval unit please whizz me an email at matthew@axel.com and I can get one shipped out today....

**fafster** · 18th March 2008, 09:29 AM

@Mat: I'll be sending you an email, too. After checking out your website, I'd like to know more.

**Matstones** · 18th March 2008, 04:49 PM

Hi Fafster,

Thank you for your email.

The first point to make is there is very little setting up for an Axel terminal as there is no operating system.

The only setting up is to provide an IP address or enable DHCP
select RDP or ICA
- if ICA select published application.
- if RDP provide server IP address

That's it - less than 30 seconds per terminal.

Once one terminal is setup you can use our s/w to take a snapshot of the config

To use the 'auto-configuration' the "tricky" part is for the 'virgin' thin-client to find 'your' PC - ie the PC running the management software. To achieve this we use one of three techniques.
1) We document how to modify the DHCP server to also send the IP of the "management PC" in a vendor ID field - but as you say this is no good for you...
2) We resolve a specific DNS name. You would either give your PC this "hardwired" name - or more likely give it as an alias
3) we assume the management s/w is running on the same machine as the DHCP server.

The virgin termial cycles through these three methods until one works. Of course at any time you can press a key on the keyboard and set up manually.

Once the terminal has located the management software it is a simple matter for the config file to be transfered across. To take it one step further you can configre different terminals to grab different config files.

There are other clever things the s/w can do - but I have probably rattled on long enough here....

Hi Mat,

I saw your reply to Geoff on the forum, and thought I'd check out Axel.com. Due to restrictions by the local authority (they manage the network infrastructure and servers) we can't modify the existing DHCP server to add tftp details to it. Do we have any options in this instance? For example, can the clients be configured centrally to get an image from a tftp server without havnig to get those details from DHCP?

We're definitely thinking of going down this route, and any information would be greatly appreciated. A pricelist would be great, too, as then we can work out where we stand with regards to budget.