Do I need to purchase a Terminal Services License?

[1NetAdminGuy]

I am the network administrator at a company site in alabama, and we
just recently set our accountant up on a terminal services connection
to a site in oklahoma. She is running windows 98 and everything works
fine. i have an unopened, registered copy of windows 2000 here, but we
don't use it. So what I am wondering, is if I have to legally purchase
a CAL for her, or if my copy of windows 2000 counts as that? i am
getting mixed opinions between some of the groups on here and the
microsoft site. Please let me know what needs to be done.

Thank You,

Brian Mosher

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

You have to either buy a TS CAL, or upgrade her computer to Windows
2000 Pro. The fact that you have a copy of W2K on your desk doesn't
help you, since the Terminal Services Licensing server (which you
have to install and activate if you haven't done so), looks at the OS
of the client to determine if it will hand out a free TS CAL to W2K
Pro and XP Pro clients, or if it will need a purchased TS CAL.

--
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, MVP - Terminal Server
http://hem.fyristorg.com/vera/IT
--- please answer in newsgroup ---

(e-mail address removed) (1NetAdminGuy) wrote in

 

[Dave]

Vera,

Read your response. I have a related question. Would one have to invest in a
CAL if W2K and Win XP Home edition were the communicating systems?

Dave

 

[Brian]

I have XP home on my home computer and use it to connect
to our Terminal Server at the office. TS Licensing shows
my home pc as having a built-in license. It is not using
one of my purchased CALS. I take that to mean that XP
home also gets a free CAL.

Brian

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

This is an error on the side of the TS Licensing Server, that was
fixed in XP SP1. Before XP SP1, the LS couldn't distinguish
between XP Pro and XP Home. But even is your XP Home machine gets
a free licenses, you have to buy a TS CAL for it to comply with
the EULA. You violate the license agreement without a bought
license. See:

319555 - Terminal Services CALs Are Not Issued for Windows XP
Embedded and Windows XP Home Edition
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=319555

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

The key factor in your setup is the OS on the servers. I am
assuming that they run W2K.
If that assumption is correct, then, yes, it won't cost you a
dollar extra.
You will have to install TS (free) and a TS Licensing server
(free) and activate it (free), because all free TS CALs for your
W2K Pro and XP Pro clients are issued by the TS Licensing server
(they are *not* build into the clients - a common misconception).

There is no limitation upon the number of clients that can
connect, other than hardware and performance.

Yes, this is very cheap compared to Citrix MetaFrame. But then,
Citrix gives you a lot of extra features if you compare it with
W2K Terminal Services. With 2003 TS, most of the features of
Citrix are natively supported by the OS, but if you plan to
install 2003 TS, then you will have to buy both a 2003 CAL and a
2003 TS CAL for all of your clients (except for every XP Pro
desktop that you owned on 24 April 2003, those can get a free 2003
TS CAL through the TS CAL Transition Plan).

You don't have to buy a 5-pack to activate the LS, just follow the
instructions in:

237811 - How to Activate a Terminal Services License Server and
Install CALs Over the Internet
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=237811

Point (15) tells you how to finish the activation without
installing licenses.

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Yes and no;-)
If you install Terminal Services in Remote Administration mode,
you will get a maximum of 2 concurrent connections without any
licensing requirements (you don't have to install a LS, you don't
need TS CALs). By default, only administrators can use these
connections, and there are no provisions made for application
compatibility for a multi-user environment (which means that this
won't work very well if you want to let 2 normal users run Office
in Remote Administration mode - their settings will get all mixed
up).

If you install Terminal Services in Application Server mode, you
will have to install and activate a LS and get a TS CAL for every
connecting device. But then, since you have only W2K Pro clients,
you don't have to buy these CALs, as I explained below.

 

[Agnieszka]

What about Win 200 CAL in this scenario?

We could not recently connect 2K pro machines to 2K TS, and the message
given was: "NUmber of users has exceeded number of licences" ( we even had 5
Terminal Services CAls available). I got an advice from Microsoft support to
increase the number of licenses for concurrent connection to the server (we
have bought 5 additional Win CALs).
But from what you have written it seems that 2000pro and XPpro do not need
any licenses. May I increaase number of licenses for the server without
buying the licenses for 2000pro and XPpro?

Thanks

 

[Agnieszka]

Thank you very much.
It does clarify all my confusion.