Cost Effective Terminal Services Solution

[Rashid]

Hi

I am managing a small network and have been tasked with
providing remote access for about 10 people.
The applications the users need access to are
Exchange/Outlook 2000, Goldmine 5.0 (most important
requirement), File services.

At present we are looking at Citrix, however if there are
any cheaper alternatives then thats all well and good.

Also what advantages (besides support for True Colour)
does Windows 2003 and its native Terminal Services have
over Windows 2000?
How cost effective is Native Windows 2000 Terminal
services in comparison to Citrix,
What functionality does it lack, would it permit users to
access there own environment/profiles?

Answers to any or all of these questions would be most
welcome.


Regards

 

[Matthew Harris [MVP]]

The more appropriate question here is, what extra services
and benefits will Citrix provide to you over Windows 2003
Server?

Citrix is a nice addon, but unless you are going to use
advanced load balancing, published applications, or NFuse
(among other things) then you might want to save your
money and just stick to the stock terminal services that
comes with Windows Server 2003.

Windows 2003 terminal services provides true color, better
printer mapping, port mapping, client drive access, and a
newer RDP protocol, as compared to Windows 2000 terminal
services.

-M

 

[Mark Mancini]

If you want TS to launch only the apps that you want and don't want to empty
your wallet on Citrix, look at my product AppLauncher www.applauncher.com
for a $250 alternative to $2500. You can have it setup in under 5 minutes
and demo it online. it won't do true color, that is for 2003. But for 10
users, that is why I designed it....much easier to sell to my clients than
Citrix!!!

 

[Guest]

Hi,

Thansk for your response.
Primarily I require access to provide a front end to
applications such as Goldmine (contact management system),
Outlook, and File sharing.

Does native Windows 2003 provide this?

 

[Guest]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the pointer, just to clarify does Applauncher
work with applications such as Goldmine?
Does it also provide file sharing services?

 

[Matthew Harris [MVP]]

yes, it does. All you need to do is set your RDP client
to bring up the particular application upon startup.

-M

 

[Rashid]

Hi Mark,

Thanks very much.

-----Original Message-----
yes, it does. All you need to do is set your RDP client
to bring up the particular application upon startup.

-M

.