Re: IXS with thin clients

I am interested in terminal services as a way to resolve several issues:
-- remote user access to internal systems and applications
-- management of the myriad of special-purpose applications that are
running rampant.
-- heightened concerns about sensitive corporate information residing
on laptops and external systems.

My current thought is to have a standard desktop PC (Windows, Office,
iSeries Access) for local users, and use MSTS or MetaFrame for remote
access and to publish applications with non-universal usage.  I hadn't
added thin clients to the equation, until now.

On 1/19/06, Jeff Crosby <jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > 1) We now have more thin clients on terminal services than
> > PCs because
> > > that makes it easier to manage.
> >
> > I am looking at doing some of that later this year.  Do you
> > mind sharing a few more specifics?  Is it delivering the
> > savings and ease that is promised?
>
> The thin clients and IXS go hand in hand.  In Dec/2004 we got a 520 with an
> IXS card running W2003 Server.  I took that opportunity to replace the 5
> remaining dumb terminals with thin clients.  They are Neoware Capio One's
> running "Neolinux", a version somehow tied to Red Hat.  They worked out well
> enough that this past November I replaced the 4 remaining W98 machines and 1
> W2K machine with 5 more thin clients.  All 10 run off that IXS card.  It's
> wonderful.  I was concerned with CPU utilization, but it virtually never
> gets above 15%.  Users use green screens, browser, email, Excel, Word,
> Powerpoint, and Publisher to varying degrees.

Interesting .. so the IXS is the terminal server, and the dumb
terminals became replaced with Neoware thin clients and as far as the
users are concerned are now Windows workstations.

Have you had any "environment" issues with the thin clients?  I seem
to recall someone on the list (Rob/Dekko?) express concern that
non-twinax devices would wilt in harsh conditions.

Are you planning on continuing the migration up the PC food chain,
replacing failed or worn out PC's with thin clients.  What do you
envision the ration of thin clients to PC's will be?

> We have one issue we're trying to resolve.  I got licenses for Citrix as
> well, but I'm trying to run Terminal Services only.  Since TS isn't as
> efficient as Citrix, there are some screen video refresh issues.  They
> mostly show up at the 2 clients that use MS Publisher.  Once in a while
> Excel is a problem.
>
> We have swapped clients, cables, and flat panels among locations
> individuaslly and collectively but cannot determine the culprit.
> Interestingly, the thin clients running the _newest_ version of Neolinux are
> the ones seeming to have the problem, but not always.  Amount of flash
> memory in the thin clients doesn't seem to be a factor.  I have a call in to
> Neoware for assistance, but no answers yet.

Have you tried another brand of thin client?  Also, isn't there a way
to turn an old Windows PC into a thin client?

> If we use Citrix, there is no problem.  But I'd like to avoid the Citrix
> support costs, especially since there are fewer and fewer Citrix support
> vendors around.  Three that I know of have stopped supporting it within the
> last year locally.  All due to the high cost to them.

I understand that MetaFrame is more expensive than MSTS, but that it
is better at a few things that can be important, most notably printing
to the client.
--> YMMV .. this info is at least a year old

I had not heard that support is difficult to find, although my
location (Southern California) may be less at risk of that than Fort
Wayne.  Is it necessary that the support be locally available?

Thanks for the info .. good luck!
--
Tom Jedrzejewicz
tomjedrz@xxxxxxxxx