I've used Windows XP Professional and the Remote Desktop features within the OS, but only with one user, myself, logging into an office machine from my home machine. I'm looking to expand on that.
I'm involved in a Linux Terminal Server Project and want to find an
inexpensive way to offer very limited Windows remote desktop to a
classroom of 30 or more Linux (LTSP) diskless thin clients using RDesktop.
Can this be done with just WinXP or must we purchase a fully blown
Windows Terminal Server? Citrix is out of the question for budget reasons.
Some questions come to mind are the following: - Nevermind licensing issues, is it technically possible?
To answer your question, Windows XP has a feature called Remote Desktop Connection, which is limited to 1 remote connection. Windows XP uses Terminal Services to acheive the Remote Desktop Connection. If you want more Remote Desktop connections (i.e., similar to a Windows 2003 Server using Terminal Services), you can purchase a separate product called WinConnect Server XP from Thin Soft (www.thinsoftinc.com). However, the pricing for WinConnect Server XP is about $100/connection sold in blocks of 3. So, its pricing is good up to about 6 remote connections. Over 6 connections, it is actually cheaper to go with Windows 2003 Server with Terminal Services. Terminal Services comes in Standard and Enterprise Server. I don't know if Terminal Services comes with Windows 2003 SmalL Business Server.
Example on Windows XP Professional ($200) + 6 WinConnect Server license ($600) = $800. To add more connections to WinConnect Server, the price is still about $100/connection sold in blocks of 3.
Windows 2003 Standard Server (with 5 TCALs) approximately $800. To add 5 TCALs, it's about $40 per TCAL ($200). So, over 5 connections, and it becomes cheaper to go with Windows 2003 Standard Server.
- What if any, licenses my be violated in doing so?
The only potential licensing issue is how the license is for the software that you want to run on the Windows XP WinConnect Server or Windows 2003 Server. If the application software is licensed per workstation, you should be ok. If it licensed per user, then you may have to buy additional licenses for the application to work with all the users simultaneously.
- If it is possible, is there a limit to concurrent users
logged into the WinXP box?
Out of the box, Windows XP limits one logged on session. If you log in at the console, then log on remotely, it will prompt you to close the console log on. With WinConnect Server XP, the limit is 21 concurrent users (assuming you have purchased enough licenses from Thin Soft). As for Windows 2003 Server, the license is called a TCAL (Terminal Client Access License). A TCAL may be assigned per device (connection) or per user.
- Anybody doing this now? (feel free to reply off-list)
Yes, I have been looking into what you are asking for. I am looking at deploying a LTSP environment with some of the workstations using rdesktop to log into a Windows 2003 Standard Server.
So far, my biggest headache actually is getting support for Windows Terminal Services. Most application software companies will only support the workstation model of Windows computing (each computer has a hard drive). So, that means I have to load the application on a Windows 2003 server and test it out before deploying. Also, deploying is tricky (remember Windows was never originally designed to be a concurrent, multi-user OS like Linix or Unix). That is where Citrix and other companies out shine Microsoft. Citrix and other Terminal Services companies require Windows 2000 or 2003 Terminal Services to be running, then they make application deployment a simple click, and provide better load balancing among server farms. However, once an application is deployed, you don't have to mess with it much.
Which has led be to the thought, that if the application companies are not going to support Windows Terminal Services, and I certainly don't get much support from them for running their application on Linux (via Wine, www.winehq.org), perhaps I should just load the application on Linux (via Wine). Once I can get an application to run via Wine, I can support and deploy the application much easier in a Linux enivornment.
Ken Cobler
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