USB extendor for Terminal Services

[Guest]

We are looking at implimenting Terminal Services with our organisation. I
have a couple of questions that could be show stopper.

1. Can you extend USB devices, i.e. Pen Drives, etc from the local PC (XP
SP2) to the remote machine (Windows 2003), to allow for files to be
downloaded, etc. This would also include units such as scanners, printers,
etc..... to be connected to the local machine but accessable on the remote.

2. When printing over broadband/VPN connections, how is the data
transfered. Main issue would be that the print file is sent RAW, from the
Remote Desktop to Local Desktop,and will eat all the bandwidth. Presentation
files can get Huge.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Guest]

Certain USB devices can be natively redirected, i.e. USB Printers, Keyboard,
Mice... however TWAIN devices and cameras require 3rd party software, i.e.
Remote-Scan or Citrix PS4. Look for many more devices to be supported in
future version of Windows Server.

Your statement about printing over TS is absolutely true. Printing a 300
page document over a WAN connection can clog-up all but the fattest pipes.
Luckily there are several companies that make printing solutions for terminal
server & Citrix that address this as well as make it possible to support
virtually any client printer. This is usually done by sending an EMF or PDF
to the client to process.

http://www.sessioncomputing.com/add-on.htm#printing