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Windows 2003 Server Terminal Services

Hello all,

We are investigating the use of Terminal services (Window 2003 Server) and are looking for input of existing users. If anyone would like to give me their insight, it would be greatly appreciated. We currently have a 20-user licenses for C&P Pro 5.

Thanks,

Dave Braford IT Manager Hanon McKendry Advertising

We currently use Metaframe XP (sits on top of Terminal Server) which alows us to do many things like hardware leverging, single point of administration and as for Clients and Profits allows us to leverage our licensing so that we can share licences and on top of that have remote connectivity without the use of MY C&P.

The key to Terminal Server/Citrix is to plan out your backend infrustructure (such as the server itself).

FYI: We use C&PSql with a 25 user full licence.

Kyle McAninch Hirons & Company Communications

Hi Dave,

We use C&P Classic 5, which is not a file server program. However, we recently installed a new file server with Windows server 2003. We experienced some difficulties when the new server was introduced to our existing network. Because the product is so new, our IT people were unaware of the compatibility problems with some of our software applications. We had to invest in several new applications which caught us off guard and added several thousand dollars to the project cost.

Wendy Lokan Accounting Manager RV Brandau Marketing, Inc.

Yes, we're using it and it works great. Any specific questions?

Barry J. Owens Controller MAI Sports, Inc.

Using it here, well 2000, but there is no major difference. Except your users will be able to print easier than mine. Short answer, it works very well.

I am assuming you mean remote access. You will need a broadband link on both ends for it to run decently, I can not see this working via a modem very well, unless it is for VERY light usage.

You will not need much of a server as far as horsepower is concerned. I have it on an old PIII 400 and it will run 3 or 4 users at the same time with no problems.

Set up is a standard set up, you do not need to go through a custom package creation for it.

For the record, we are on SQL C&P, so in essence we are still on 4.0, which seems odd, considering 5.0 came out over a year ago and our support costs per month are massive compared to yours. But I doubt there is much difference in relation to Terminal Services.

Hope that answers your question, if not let me know, I am using Terminal Services for a lot of items and have the install and set up down pretty well.

Jim Kennedy Brokaw Inc.

We have used C&P Pro 5 through Windows 2000 Terminal Server with no problems. With broadband Internet on both sides, the system is still quite usable, although not quite as responsive as a direct, local connection. It is not really usable over dialup. Although our use of this feature has declined significantly in recent months, earlier this year we regularly had 2-3 people in the system accessing Clients and Profits and printing to their local printer without a problem.

Given the limitations of the web version, it is the best way to provide remote users with access to Clients and Profits.

Richard Heend thembcgroup

We currently use Metaframe XP (sits on top of Terminal Server) which alows us to do many things like hardware leverging, single point of administration and as for Clients and Profits allows us to leverage our licensing so that we can share licences and on top of that have remote connectivity without the use of MY C&P.

The key to Terminal Server/Citrix is to plan out your backend infrustructure (such as the server itself).

FYI: We use C&PSql with a 25 user full licence.

Kyle McAninch Hirons & Company Communications

Kyle, I'd like to discuss this in more detail with you when you have time. We're new to C&P and although I believe it to be very user friendly with both account service and finance, we've been having problems with our Mac users and I personally need full access to C&P outside the office....if you have suggestions, I'd love to talk.

Michele Padilla, Controller Moosylvania

We have used Terminal Services on a Win 2k server for almost a year with little trouble, but somewhat slow reaction time.

An alternative, if you are looking for a more complete Remote Access setup, would be to take a look at this web site and what they offer. www.GoToMyPC.com

We are currently testing out a trial version and so far we are pretty impressed with how it works. The only major downfall is that the "Host" computer must be a PC.

Basically, you log into your machine at work from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection. This saves you from having to have two sets of applications for a remote user. Pretty amazing.

The second downfall is that currently they only support 256 color resolution because of the bandwidth requirements for more. But you can transfer files from the "Host" machine to the "Client" machine so you could if necessary, work on graphics or high-resolution files without much trouble.

Their security measures for this service seem to be more than adequate to ensure that you do not have unauthorized connections.

Anyway, check them out for more detailed and better explained information.

Russel Des Jardins CIO Ripple Marketing, LLC

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond. Very good insight.

But, I was hoping to use Term services over our LAN, not for remote access. Here's my rationale - Upgrading to C&P SQL is costly, and quite frankly, not worth the $$$ (for us). There should be a significant speed boost to C&P if all users on any 100Mb LAN "log in" to a central server. There, the C&P application would access the datafile directly, not over copper. Remote access (WAN based), would just be a bonus for us. But, I'm sure it will be utilized over BROADBAND connections. Dial-ups are obviously the bottleneck in any VNC environment.

SO, why aren't you Term services uses using it all the time ? Any thoughts ?

Dave Braford IT Manager Hanon McKendry Advertising

I've also accessed C&P remotely with a local copy of the app and accessing the database remotely over a VPN connection. It's of course not as fast as working locally, but it's definitely doable. If it's within your IT budget I'd definitely go with Terminal Services or, better yet, Citrix MetaFrame.

Jeffrey Tarnoff Aventine HealthSciences