Citrix capabilities

[daveden]

Anyone have Citrix experience? I have installed software, troubleshot printer issues and worked with users profiles on the Citrix boxes. Never have installed one and configged it start to finish though..

I need to know how I can implement/improve situations at work in a couple areas.
1. Shouldn't have to upgrade some stations (8) if they connect to a Citrix box for a specific program that is outside those computers harware specs.
2. See if the curent NT 4.0 RAS users going thru a modem pool can be sped up thru possiblr IP connection or maybe a VPN thru the POTS line--someway other than dial up anyway...

I know I'll need another 2000 server running Terminal Services on it's on box for starters....Then the design can take shape..
Too bad I never took any design classes or better yet never got any Certs in 2000 at all for that matter.
I squeezed my NT 4.0 MCSE by Feb 2001 before the cut off..
But...tests are one thing and what people do certainly don't resemble most test scenarios!

 

[BeerGood]

Anyone have Citrix experience?
Nope. Sorry. This is the Citrix Solutions Forum. We just talk about solutions here - none of us actually have any experience doing things. I'll help if I can though.... ;-)

1. Shouldn't have to upgrade some stations (8) if they connect to a Citrix box for a specific program that is outside those computers harware specs.
Yup. Should work fine - as long as the specific program is happy to work under terminal server. You can always test this by setting up a win2k server and installing the application and then try to access it using Microsoft's rdp in administrator mode. If that's the main reason for getting Citrix, you might find it cheaper to just upgrade the 8 workstations though rather than buying a win2k server license, citrix licenses, CALs, a decent server, ongoing support, regular backups.....

2. See if the curent NT 4.0 RAS users going thru a modem pool can be sped up thru possiblr IP connection or maybe a VPN thru the POTS line--someway other than dial up anyway...
Well probably depending on what they're doing. If they're connecting in to read large mail files, open up spreadsheets/documents etc then almost certainly it would help particularly if they get onto the Citrix server because only the screen/keyboard data is going over the wire rather than the entire document. The VPN thing is also a possibility, as is just allowing access to the Citrix server through a firewall. Would not use POTS for it though, unless you can aggragate a number of connections (and generally if you do that it ends up more expensive than getting dsl/cable/frame/isdn/whatever), as one dial up connection would not be too flash for multiple users. A DSL connection would generally be fine for this purpose though - again depending on the total number of concurrent users and their activity.

Cheers

 

[daveden]

Can you explain the VPN possibilities?

 

[BeerGood]

You can setup vpn access from the internet to your internal network. You can buy equipment that does this (eg Cisco, Nokia, Netgear, etc) or setup your own using a win2k server or linux box. I personally tend to favour the "black box" approach and would use a dedicated (specialised) box for this purpose - this used to be more expensive than (say) using an old pc running linux, but some of the units out there now mean that is frequently no longer the case.

Anyhow, once the VPN is available external users connect into your network through the internet - once they are connected, effectively their pc is part of your network albeit connected via a slower link (speed being dependant on both the external user's connect speed and the link at your office). The VPN user can run any application they want including map drives, print etc as they would normally (again keeping in mind the bandwidth constraints) or alternatively connect onto the Citrix server and then only screen/keyboard data would be sent over the wire (except when/if they print).

Cheers

 

[daveden]

If I used the current router to forward all requests on the Citrix Port (what ever it is) to the internal IP of the Citrix box, would that work?
Would that be considered VPN or what would it be?

 

[BeerGood]

In theory it would (and does) work, in practise it would not be recommended as it is a security risk (the ports used by Citrix are very well known to the bad guys/gals out there). It would not be a VPN - you're just opening ports to a server on the internal network.

A VPN is a Virtual Private Network - check out

http://www.vpnc.org/white-papers.html

for info

Cheers

 

[xs4citrix]

If setting up VPN is a bit overkill, then using Citrix Secure Gateway (free for subscription advantage users) is as close as you can get to VPN, without doing much on the clientside.
It would at least not expose your metaframe server directly to the internet, which is asking for trouble. (already mentioned by beergood)

http://www.printingsupport.com

Free citrixprinting support