milt

Any progress on your plans to test usb devices? I am particularly interested in DVD players on a thin client in multipoint server. BTW, in response to your earlier question, Plugable DC-125's work beautifully with WMS 2011 using DisplayLink chips.

A year ago, I spent some time here reporting on my 24 seat WMS 2010 installation with direct video/usb hub connections (4 seats/i5 760). Short story is everything has gone well with office, internet, flash/shockwave apps, and solidworks. Now, I am building a 50 seat system in our large community room which has longer distances between seats. I was so impressed with the 4 seat/server performance that I am testing 12 seats/server which strains the direct video solution, so I've been looking at thin clients, DisplayLink, and nComputing solutions. Thus far, thin clients are OK but have unacceptable, jerky video (youtube). DisplayLink works great (I'm using Plugable stations) and I have up to 8 stations per server so far. I have an L300 from nComputing but haven't tested it yet. I haven't loaded up the 8 station system yet, so I don't know its useful capacity but I will be doing that soon. The thin clients I have tested are $50 WinCE 6.0 units from China and HP t5325 (which I can get for $100). Both of these are about the same performance though the HP is a little easier to manage. So one question is -- is there a thin client in this price range that can give better video performance? Another question is -- can Quest EOP make a difference? Why would I care if the Plugable DisplayLink devices work so well? Mostly so I can have clients on ethernet, without distance restrictions of USB. Why don't I use various other server/client solutions? Because I'm not a networking genius like most edugeeks and I don't want to spend much time managing the system. WMS is simple enough for me to manage. All comments and suggestions are welcome. All the best, Milt

I am not using ncomputing at all, just $10 USB hubs and dual head video cards. My entire 24 seat system is coming in at $13,200, based on 4 seat pods.

I used Nvidia driver 169.21. You can download it. If you look at the nvidia site you will see that it supports 5500. I had it on a PNY CD (that I got with the card) in a folder and ran setup, but the downloaded file should work too. I didn't get all 4 monitors working until the driver was installed. Before that, only one card was working and it was showing duplicate screens. Afterwards, I had 4 monitors to which I could assign usb hubs. Happy to answer any other questions.

They do indeed work fine. Had to run setup again after plugging them in. Hub is powered.

I more point: I have purchased some USB audio adapters ($5 or $10 each). Not yet tested, but should work.

I wrote in earlier when I still trying to figure out what to do. Based on some of this forum's advice, I went ahead with Multipoint Server and now have 4 stations running beautifully. It could hardly be easier. For those interested, here is what I did: bought a core 2 quad, 4GB machine on eBay for $400 added 2 PNY geforce 5200 PCI cards for $70 licensed WMS 2010 and 4 CALs for $200 bought 4 USB hubs (you need one for each station no matter how many slots they have) plugged in available monitors and mice booted up, installed video drivers (had to find the right one -- wrong info abounds) booted up again. (press s) set up stations added users plugged into ethernet (no domain) done Beautiful. Runs well. My only problem is that my colleague wants to run autocad and this may take a little fiddling. Highly recommended. Expect final cost to be less than $12,000 for 24 seats.

I am experimenting this summer with multiuser systems with the goal being a classroom of 24 stations running autocad. My prototype is a 4 station pod built on a Core 2 quad, 4GB machine and I am acquiring various bits and pieces to try things out. So far, I have downloaded Windows Multipoint Server and Softxpand and have been sent a setup for Fiddlehead. I have also acquired 2 dual head graphics cards, 4 USB hubs, and some USB audio adapters for headphone use. Here is my thinking so far: 1. I need one gpu per station so that leaves n-computing out. Everything else can go by USB. 2. Multipoint server is probably my best (but not cheapest) solution if it runs autocad on all 4 stations. 3. Fiddlehead may be the easiest to configure but may not run autocad. 4. Softxpand is the one I know the least about. I have noticed that a few of you are quite conversant with these choices so I am appealing to you for two purposes: I. General reality check on my thinking and plans. II. Someone who might be able to partner me through the process (I could actually pay for this to a limited extent if you have actual experience). If all this works, I have a budget to buy the whole setup with new hardware, so I will eventually be interested in recommendations on computers and and monitors as well. As an additional note, I am not a network administrator, but can learn well. Thanks in advance, Milt