• What's up?
• KB Articles of the Month
• Ask our MVPs!
• Learning Zone
• On the Spot
• Rumors on the SBC Space

1. What's up?

Hi there!

As you may already have noticed, MSTerminalServices.org has undergone a major facelift. To celebrate the new look we are offering a chance to win a free t-shirt with the new logo. In order to be eligible, subscribe to this newsletter (send it to your friends) or any of the other newsletters from TechGenix.

Good news on the author front for the website. Michael Burke has joined the team, and has already published his first article. Welcome to the club Michael, and I'm looking forward to more of those excellent articles.

Briforum Europe 2006 was a great success, and I really enjoyed my few days at it. For those of you who missed it, plans for Briforum Europe 2007 are already in the make. (Come on over to Amsterdam Brian ;-))

As we speak, Citrix Iforum is going on, and I'm sorry I cannot be there. Hopefully, next time. They will probably be showing Presentation server 4.5 (Codename ohio) as an introduction, and if they don't, it will probably be in the labs to play with. Make sure to check it out!

In the beginning of November, Pubforum is coming to Amsterdam. For those of you planning to attend, make sure to pull my jacket for a chat.

That's all for now!

Catch you later!

2. KB Articles of the Month

Here are some interesting and useful Terminal Services related articles posted by Microsoft in the last month:

• An application that runs in a Terminal Services environment stops running or runs slower than expected in Windows Server 2003

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919953/en-us

• You experience problems with programs that are not Terminal Services aware after you install security update 917422 on a computer that is running Windows 2000 Service Pack 4

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924066/en-us

• HOW TO: Install and Use the Drive Share Utility in Windows 2000 Terminal Services

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321711/en-us

• HOW TO: Securely Copy and Paste Files Between the Terminal Services Client and the Terminal Server in Windows 2000

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309825/en-us

• HOW TO: Use the Terminal Services Client Registry Editor to Modify Client Registry Settings in Windows 2000 Terminal Services

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321706/en-us

• An Assigned Program Is Not Installed in Terminal Services Remote Administration Mode

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311727/en-us

• Your computer automatically restarts or a stop error or another error occurs when you have Terminal Services enabled

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/820767/en-us

• Error Event 1109 Appears in the Event Log When Terminal Services Clients Disconnect

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817870/en-us

• Terminal Services Licensing Problems After Upgrade to Release Version of Windows 2000

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/248409/en-us

3. Ask our MVPs a question

QUESTION: Dear MVP's,

I have been doing some calculations regarding this Terminal Server stuff, and I think over the next few years i'm going to save the company tens of thousands of dollars. Just think of it, invest $100 in a TS CAL, buy a few servers for $4.000 each and have the users run the latest apps on their 7 year old computer for now, and for years to come. This will be the best investment I ever did. I can smell the end year bonus from my boss already, don't you agree?

Regards, Pennysaver Penelope.

ANSWER: Dear Penelope,

The investment and a good migration and the true costs of an SBC implementation are not so easy to calculate, but certainly do not stop at the $100 per user. You need to take the education of your staff into account, the education of your users, maybe an upgrade of the WAN network and some extra needed add-ons for the server and if your staff is more operational than high level skilled, you may need some consultancy hours. Then the servers may not be capable of what you wanted as you need to test that before going live, so maybe you will need more than calculated.

If you have already calculated all of that in advance, then yes. In a few years you start saving some money. But I can guarantee you that it will certainly not be in the first year(s).

Cheers!

4. Learning Zone

We have a great group of articles in the Learning Zone that will help you get a handle on your most difficult configuration issues. Here are just a few of the newer and more interesting articles:

• Tunnel Applications to Remote Desktops Seamlessly: 2X ApplicationServer Review

Date - October 24, 2006; Author - Wilco van Bragt; Section - Articles :: General

2X has just launched 2X ApplicationServer version 4, a full SBC product offering Published Application, Seamless Integration, Load Balancing, SSL support and clients for several platforms. Let's take a look at this product and see what it offers.

• Using Windows Performance Monitor to Baseline a Terminal Server (Part 1)

Date - October 18, 2006; Author - Michael Burke; Section - Articles :: General

In this article Michael discusses Windows Performance Monitor and how to use it to create a baseline Terminal Server in order to analyze any performance issues. A good way of getting to know what actually happens, instead of slapping more servers towards performance problems.

• An Introduction to Terminal Services Remote Programs (Part 1)

Date - October 11, 2006; Author - Brien M. Posey; Section - Articles :: General

In this article Brien discusses the introduction of a new type of Terminal Service session called Terminal Services Remote Programs.

5. On The Spot

This month we talked to Nikolaos Makris, CEO of 2X.

Most people will remember 2X for their wild giveaway action of the 5-user license of their ApplicationServer back in April this year. Now 2X has come to version 4 of their ApplicationServer and we felt that it's time to talk about this product.

Stefan: Hello Nikolaos and welcome to 'On the spot' here at MSTermialServices.org.

Nikolaos: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to introduce myself and 2X Software to the MSTerminalServices.org community. For all of us at 2X, this past year has been very exciting and we are overjoyed by the positive response we have received from the press and the market. Before joining 2X I spent over 10 years at GFI as the General Manager for Central Europe. During this time the company grew to be one of the leading security and communications software companies in the region.

Stefan: How did you end up at 2X?

Nikolaos: I decided to join 2X Software, a new company founded by Nick Galea because I believed in the company's vision. With today's administration, security problems and exploding IT costs resulting from the fat client administration, a return to server based computing is the only way forward for IT. Virtualization, Terminal Services and web-based applications together with affordable server hardware and growing bandwidth are the key tools in bringing about this shift. This is where our software-based thin client solutions and application publishing solutions fit. Our advantage is that we try to be compatible with as many hardware and OS systems as possible in order to support all types of existing Network infrastructures.

Stefan: Version 4 of the ApplicationServer has been released earlier this month. Can you tell us a bit about the new features in this version?

Nikolaos: With 2X ApplicationServer 4 we wanted to make application publication easy to install, administrate and affordable to all. Compared with the previous version, we now support Terminal Server Farms and have integrated our resource-based load balancer. The newly designed 2X console makes it easy to manage and support all kinds of terminal server environments.

Stefan: Is the client for Windows only?

Nikolaos: This new version supports MAC, Linux and obviously Windows clients via a secure SSL connection. We have also integrated a Web access to the published application. A very unique feature is the drag and drop application publishing feature allowing an administrator to publish an application within seconds. There are many more new features and I would recommend that anyone interested should test our free 5 user version.

Stefan: I have set up the ApplicationServer on a test machine and was impressed with the simplicity of the setup. Is this the focus for administrators to have an easy setup for this specific product, or is this the design for all 2X solutions?

Nikolaos: Yes, exactly, this is the 2X philosophy. We believe that only by simplifying complex technologies and procedures can they be successful. We therefore implement this concept into all our products. Every good administrator should be able to run our software without reading a complex manual or the need of technical support.

Stefan: When going through the manual it describes the "Client Gateway Service" and a "Web Interface". Can these reside in a server in the DMZ, hosting all 2X ApplicationServers via a single Gateway?

Nikolaos: The architecture of 2X ApplicationServer allows the installation of the client gateway service and the web interface in a DMZ. This way a high level of security is provided.

Stefan: In this version of the product, configuration is exported and imported to configure new servers, using xml based technology. Are there any plans for a central configuration storage system, directly available for all servers?

Nikolaos: The next version of 2X ApplicationServer will provide a central database that will be available to all servers. This way we make it even easier to configure a multi server environment.

Stefan: 2X ApplicationServer is now using the underlying printing engine of Terminal Server directly for Printer Redirecting. Are there any plans for developing a PDF or EMD based printing solution, or does 2X encourage the usage of a specific third party printing vendor that is certified to work with 2X ApplicationServer 4.0?

Nikolaos: For now we recommend products like ThinPrint, UniPrint, or ScrewDrivers from Tricerat to address the printing issue. We are looking into implementing our own PDF based printing solution in the near future.

Stefan: The 2X pricing model for ApplicationServer 4.0 is extremely competitive compared to other vendors targeting this market space. When you can handle 60 concurrent sessions on a server you of course go for the "per server" license and this results in $16.58 a user, which is a mind-blowing price. Together with your current "Competitive Upgrade Discount" which is 40%, this results in a $9.95 price per concurrent user. This is so cheap, it's hard to believe. Where is the catch?

Nikolaos: Well... there is no catch. From experience we know that if new technology is affordable and at the same time of high quality, the acceptance is high. We want to make server based computing a standard in every office network environment and therefore we have to keep the acquisition cost low.

Stefan: Nikolaos, thank you very much for the interview and telling us a bit about the 2X ApplicationServer solution. If people are interested in having a look at it, where can they get there free 5-user license?

Nikolaos: People interested in it, can download their free version right here: http://www.2x.com/applicationserver/application-publishing.htm

6. Rumors on the SBC Space

My guess on Brian's hair at Briforum Europe 2006 was white, and I was completely wrong. He had been so busy this time around that there was no time for a shock color. Better luck next time!

Claudio has released his tsrecorder tool, and has mentioned a Citrix recorder in the next version. (Interesting, as Citrix will be releasing this functionality (project Iris) in the near future as either part of 4.5 or as a stand alone product. I assume Claudio's version can record older versions of Citrix, making it an interesting product.)

Rick Delingher has issued a press release called "iQurious launches revolutionary new IT architecture" where he is teaming up with the German Visionapp, to show how standardizing and reproducibility will be changing tomorrow's IT landscape. I am curious on what we can expect from him in the near future.

The Citrix engineers have started blogging like crazy. You can now read quite a lot of information about the early days of Citrix, and technical articles are popping up more and more. If you have not already, add their feed to your reader.

Also don't forget to add the many feeds available on MSTerminalServices.org to your reader as well: http://rss.techgenix.com/

So much for now. See you next month!