Can anyone recommend a thin client terminal?

[flyinghaggis]

We're looking at buying in a half dozen thin client terminals for our new PE base so staff to carry out basic admin tasks (typing reports/online ordering/etc). Because of the limited nature of what they'll be doing we thought thin clients might be the ideal solution given we already have a terminal server that staff use at home anyway and it's virtually idle throughout most of the day!

 

Regarding the Hardware I was thinking about getting a "Wyse Thin Client S10" in to test. I've had previous experience with Wyse terminals and they seemed pretty good. Having said that I've not seen any other dedicated thin clients though so cant really offer a particularly objective viewpoint.

 

We just need something fairly basic that plugs in via ethernet and can connect to a windows RDP session? It would also be useful if it supported USB memory sticks aswell so staff can copy files back and forth. Given those requirements what thin client would you recommend buying for around £175?

 

TIA!

[Netman]

I've recently been testing several and like the Igel units very much - their Linux based Smart 2110LX is circa £140 and connects seemlessly to TS on 2003 or 2008... they support usb too... Thin Clients - IGEL Technology - UK & Ireland

[nut-ed]

There's a good write up and photos of an interesting looking new device on:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/thin-client-virtual-machines/17155-axel-ax3000-m70-2.html

[kesomir]

I heartily recommend the HP thin clients.

 

I use the linux ones, t5725/35 but they do xp embedded and win ce if thats more familiar to you - all can deliver a windows desktop though.

 

HP UK - Help me choose - Compare thin clients

[Butuz]

Yeh gotta admit the Axel units have won me over, such a simple design and they do the exact job they need to do at minimal cost. Plug them in, point them towards your MS Terminal Server - job's a good 'un.

 

Also - they are seriously undercutting the price of the Wyse and Igel units. you should be able to get sopme 50% more clients for your money...

 

 

Butuz

[Ravening_Wolf]

We have ~90 Wyse 9150 units which have started to die for no apparent reason after less than 2 years of use and as such I would not recommend them. We have also recently taken delivery of some custom-build Ruby thin clients built by A2Z computers which look quite promising. ive them a call as they have a number of options available (including converting old/useless PCs you may have lying around).

[icarusdragon]

 

dos_box

[flyinghaggis]

We've just recieved our HP T5135 and Wyse S10. Initial impressions so far are :-

 

HP T5135

The terminal itself is a bit on the large side for a thin client! I like the build quality though as with most HP kit. The biggest problem with it though is the startup time of 60 seconds! I'm not quite sure why it takes so long as my home PC running Vista with a shed load more components and hardware boots in about the same time! Despite its cheap price that might be enough to put me off. The OS itself seems fairly intuitive to setup though.

 

Wyse S10

The terminal is much neater though the fit/finish isn't up to HP standards (it actually wobbles slighly on it's stand and the power button feels pretty flimsy). For some reason (dont know if anyone can explain) they've boxed the things with a PS2 mouse despite the fact that the wyse only has USB connections? There's not adapter either! Have to say though the wyseOS boot time is literally a few seconds which is much more like it for a thin terminal. The OS itself seems better though out aswell though I've not had a chance to play around with DHCP and FTP for auto-config/yet. I need to generate a WNOS.ini file somehow but I've ot found any details of how to do this yet! Just away to download the Wyse Deployment software and give that a try.

 

In general I'm favouring the Wyse just now but would appreciate if anyone else has any comments on these units or any general thoughts? Do all of the HP thin clients take so long to boot or is it just the T5135?

Edited June 6, 2008 by flyinghaggis

[Dos_Box]

Give Axel a ring and tell them you are a member of EduGeek and ask for a terminal to trial. Several others here have and seem quite happy.

[Axel]

Thanks Dos_Box

 

....Axel will be exhibiting at the annual Citrix exhibition next week (Citrix Iforum) in Edinburgh IECC.

 

It is not a free event, so you can't just turn up and blag your way in, but we have a spare pass to gain access to the exhibition area. (not the seminars).

 

If anyone is interested please drop me a line...

 

All the thin-client manaufacturers will be there for one big bun fight !!!

[Geoff]

Is there an Axel box with sound yet?

[Oops_my_bad]

Which HP thin clients can be mounted on the back of a standard monitor with a VESA mount? I know you can mount them on the back of *certain* HP monitors, but we prefer our own TFT brand

[nut-ed]

anyone have a photo of HP thin-client attached to VESA monitor they could post...?

[Butuz]

Which HP thin clients can be mounted on the back of a standard monitor with a VESA mount? I know you can mount them on the back of *certain* HP monitors, but we prefer our own TFT brand

 

Pretty much all of them - but you have to buy the VESA mounts - they don't come as standard.

 

Andrew

[flyinghaggis]

Just been trying the free evaluation Axel we got sent and it's awesome! By far the best thin RDP client I've seen as long as you can live without sound. Pretty impressive considering it's also the cheapest. Also a big thumbs up to Axel for providing the management software for free so you can deploy firmware updates and import/export config's. We literally had the thing up and running in 5 minutes and had the management console installed and ready for rolling out configs/firmware udpdates in another 10 minutes.

Basically it does exactly what we want and is easy to setup unlike the Wyse/HP which seem to make it really awkward unless you're willing to pay them extra for the management software. They also provide you with the TFT monitor mounting bracket as part of the pack aswell. Both HP and Wyse charge you £20-30 for a piece of metal and screws if you want to do this !

The only thing I'd personally prefer is if they got rid of the PS2 ports on the back and replaced them with USB connections to leave the front ones spare for memory sticks/etc (I assume these work OK though I haven;t had a chance to test them yet?).

 

I'll run some more RDP tests with various software tomorrow but so far it's looking like it's a great piece of kit

Edited June 16, 2008 by flyinghaggis

[Axel]

Thanks FlyingHaggis,

 

Memory sticks (and CDrom drives) work great.

 

By default they are disabled, as many IT managers do NOT want support for memsticks, as without them the TC is the "end of the line" in regards to adding (illegal) and removing (proprietary) software/data. We like to err on the side of caution regarding security.

 

Once enabled in the terminal's setup you can hot plug these devices, they are seen as network drives but they are only available to the particular terminal they are plugged into....