Terminal server? for remote user, how to share data on the server 4

[rbby2003]

I am thinking to install a terminal server and get enough licenses for off-site users to resolve the problem of accessing shared data via VPN for off-site users. Can the following be achieved? 10 off-site users are logged onto the terminal server and use Outlook, WORD, Excel among other programs at the same time from the terminal server.

Some off-site user has an office desktop computer, the person connects VPN, then use remote desktop to log onto that office desktop computer, and it works good. But for 10 or more people, we want to use terminal server as the solution. Since this will be my first terminal server installation ( if we take this route), any input will be appreciated.

My client's off-site users are experiencing problems to access the shared data on the office server. Their computers are locked up when they try to open some WORD, Excel, PDF documents ( 30-300kb, very small ) after they connect VPN to the office server. Office Internet is a full T1 connection, and off-site users are using T-mobile cellular wireless cards on their laptop to connect to the Internet.

The office users are using local LAN connection to the server and it is working very good for them to share documents from the server. So I know that the problem is not with the server.

The client has 10 off-site users who need to share the data on the server on a daily basis.

Thank you for viewing, and your input will be appreciated.

 

[Stevehewitt]

Hi,

I'm a bit confused as to what you're actually after. If you install a Win2k3 Terminal Server (aka Term Serv Application Mode) then each user has a dedicated session on the server. They should then be able to access anything connected to the rest of the associated network (firewalls, permissions and routing permitting!).

E.G. I remote desktop to our terminal server and once logged in my logon script executes and maps a number of drives to shares from other server (or a DFS share).

Could you maybe explain your issue in a bit more detail?

Thanks,




Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[rbby2003]

Steve, thank you.
My question is:
Can this be achieved: 10 off-site users log onto the same terminal server, and at the same time they all use Outlook, WORD, Excel among other applications on the terminal server?

Let's say we purchase 1 license of MS Office 2003 and installed the MS Office 2003 on the terminnal server. Can 10 off-site users open their own Outlook profile at the same time? When they use terminal server, their connection to the terminal server is really treated as they are using their own separate desktop machines ( application-wise )?

Now my client's problem is: off-site users can connect VPN to the file server, but their computers lock up when they try to open shared documents from the server and many times they need to reboot their computers. They are using T-mobile cellular wireless card on their laptops to connect to the Internet. We want to resolve this sharing data problem for T-mobile card users. When users use other office local Internet connection to open data from the server via VPN, it is working OK. It is a big problem for T-mobile cellular wireless card users. In the file server office, we have a full T1 Internet connection.

What are the other options that I have so solve the problem?

Thanks, again.

 

[pgaliardo]

Rbby2003,

As far as the Terminal Server Question, the answer is yes. The whole idea behind a terminal server is that several users can run their own session on it. So they can all be using Outlook at the same time and each will have their own profile. The terminal server will create a user profile for each user that logs in in C:\Documents and Settings\{username}. So each user has their own desktop, printers, settings, etc. However, I thnk the licensing is per user, so legally, I think you still need to purchase 10 Office licenses even though you are only installing it on 1 server. If i am wrong about that, I hope someone will chime in.

 

[Stevehewitt]

Hi,

pgaliardo is correct - that's the whole idea of Terminal Services.

However as mentioned - you need a licence per user for your applications.

In regards to your other issue. I would suggest that this is due to bandwidth and network congestion. Whilst mobile operators would love you to believe otherwise; their IP networks leave something to be desired for. It could be possible that they have problems when trying to open 3Mb Word documents - it's either timing out or taking so long to download that word is essentially doing nothing for a long period of time (whilst it's actually watiting for the network) - thus Windows says that it's not responding.

There is very little that could be done regarding this - other than something similar to Terminal Services.

Hope this helps,




Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[rbby2003]

pgaliardo, Stevehewitt,
Thanks go to both of you.
I believe that on a Windows XP machine, only one user can use the computer at a point of time and only one Outlook profile can be opened. That is the main reason that I asked the question about 10 users using applications at the time from the terminal server.

What would be your estimate of a terminal server for 10 users ( Let's not include MS Office yet, I am going to get basic Office from CDW, we got some good price from them before, 10 licenses, it is still a lot of money )? Will I need 10 licenses of terminal service plus 10 licenses of Windows server 2003 ( or Windows SBS 2003)? What will be the average price for 10 terminal service licenses?

Thanks in advance.

 

[xwire]

I beleive when we purchased our licenses for Terminal Server, they were plus or minus $72.00 bucks from CDW. I could be a bit off but it was around there.

 

[rbby2003]

xwire,

$72 per license for Terminal serivce is the price, and $720 will be the total for 10 terminal service licenses, right?

Do I need to purchase both 10 licenses for Windows ( windows 2003, or windows SBS 2003 ) and 10 licenses for terminal services?

To get a terminal server with 10 licenses up and running ( to purchase a new server and licenses needed ), what will be the total cost ( do not include MS Office yet )?

Thanks.

 

[cmeagan656]

Yes, you need Server cals as well as TS cals.

Here is what you need:

Windows Server 2K3 Standard or SBS license (I believe the W2K3 Standard license includes 5 server cals)
10 Server cals (if the Server license comes with 5 cals then you only need 5 additional cals)
10 TS cals

Cheers.

 

[rbby2003]

cmeagan656, thank you.

For the terminal server, are there some recommendations to use Windows server 2003 or Windows SBS 2003?

 

[Stevehewitt]

Don't think there is any difference from a technical viewpoint - although I'd recommend a seperate server if you are planning to grow your company / volume of users. TS can put a load on servers and if a user runs some heavy duty app that eats a load of processor time / RAM then you could have your SBS Server (so your DC, DNS, DHCP, File, Print, Email, DB etc.) overloaded and unable to process other tasks.

Good Luck,




Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[rbby2003]

Thanks, Stevehewitt.

We will put TS on a separate server.

 

[scottew]

You will definitely need a separate server for a terminal server. You can not add TS CAL's on a SBS box. You can only use the 2 users for remote administration.

 

[rbby2003]

scottew, thanks.

Good to know that Windows SBS 2003 will NOT take extra TS CALs besides the included 2 remote connection.