AnywhereTS

[Kyle]

I have been looking to day into trying out thin clients. I know the usual names branded around on the forum but i decide to do a little Google for myself. I found Anywhere TS and decided to give it a try.

 

I do have spare hardware to try it on now but i also want to try it on Virtual PC. Has anyone else use AnywhereTS and even tried it on Virtual PC 2007?

[Ric_]

From the blurb it is just a config of Thinstation. You can download a Thinstation ISO that I know VMWare will boot off and works OK so I can't see it being a problem.

 

Don't forget to check out http://edugeekconference.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=59 too

[Kyle]

I have no real idea on what i am doing on this. I know how to set up the Windows Server and the DHCP but the thin client stuff i need to read more and pick brains. I have read the Thin station site and must admit have learnt a lot already but there is a lot i don't understand.

[PiqueABoo]

Haven't done it recently, but I tried AnywhereTS once and it routinely crashed whenever I picked a VMWare driver (think it was the NIC) which was the last in the list i.e. possible index problem.

[Kyle]

What a bout Anywhere TS in a real test enviroment?

[Ric_]

What a bout Anywhere TS in a real test enviroment?

 

Check out that stuff on the conference site... it will show you how to get Thinstation set up - this works for me in real life. Once you have the test setup done, you can use the Thinstation ROM-o-matic or AnywhereTS or whatever.

[Kyle]

XP CLients running as thin clients?

 

Hows this work?

 

 

On the conference site, is the hand out refered to on the presentation the Word Document configuring TS?

[Ric_]

XP CLients running as thin clients?

 

Hows this work?

 

You can initiate a RDP session from XP (as you would RDP into a 'normal' server with 'mstsc'). This is also how XPe based thin client devices work.

 

On the conference site, is the hand out refered to on the presentation the Word Document configuring TS?

 

Indeed it is

[Kyle]

You can initiate a RDP session from XP (as you would RDP into a 'normal' server with 'mstsc'). This is also how XPe based thin client devices work.

 

Have you got any info/websites on this, the reason i ask is that the pc's i intend to use as thi clients use dto run XP all be it badly. THey were very slow to log in to the network and pull all the policies over and not to mention Sophos.

 

HOw do thin clients deal with Sophos/Anti VIrus?

[Ric_]

To use XP as a client, simply set up a user account that has desktop containing ONLY the shortcut to the server and no start menu. This user needs to 'autologin' so should not have net access and must be severley locked down.

 

The shortcut should contain the following command...

mstsc /v MyServerName

 

Sophos has got better recently, although the large memory footprint is still a problem, knocking my usable concurrent user count down by 5-10 users (which is why I recommend 30 users per server).

[webman]

To lock it down even further you could create an AutoIT exe that runs the mstsc command in a loop if it fails, and set it as the shell - no windows explorer, desktop, task bar or anything that way

 

(I say autoit as I don't think you can supply command-line parameters to the shell)

[Ric_]

@webman: The problem with that is that it will disconnect after a minute or so if nobody logs in so the computer will continually be logging on and off. It also does some stuff at the server end with every connection so it would eat resources (all be it a tiny amount).

 

You are right about the shell thing though... I have a user for two machines in our libraries which are used purely for looking up books. The user has the library software as the shell but this requires certain switches so I had to create a batch file for it.

[webman]

Ah Ok then, wasn't aware of that. It was a good idea in theory, in my mind.. when I typed it..