New Apps on Old Hardware

Terminal services in Windows 2000 lets Windows clients across your network run Windows 2000 on their desktops. The advantage here is that your clients can be using outdated hardware running Windows 95, and yet run the latest applications. That’s because all the processing is done on the server side. You can also use Terminal services for remote administration of your Windows 2000 server.

Terminal servers will work for 90 days, after which you’ll need a Microsoft license. For this you’ll also need to install the Terminal services Licensing component from add/remove windows components. To install Terminal Services, go to Add/Remove programs and click on the Add/ Remove Windows components tab. Put a tick next to Terminal services and click OK.

The next window offers you two installing options, Remote administration mode and Application mode. The former allows a limited number of people to remotely manage the server, while the latter allows users on your network to run applications from your server. We chose Application mode server. You’ll need your Windows 2000 and service Pack 1 CDs ready.

You’ll now have to create client diskettes, which users will use to connect to the server. For this go to Administrative tools and click on Terminal Services Client Creator. This allows you to create disks for 16 and 32-bit windows clients. Keep a few fresh floppies handy for this. Next, install the client from the floppies you just created. Once installed, open the Client connection Manager, under the Terminal Services tab that gets created in your start menu. Click on File and select New Connection. This will open up a wizard, which will help you create a new connection to the server. Give a name to your connection and Enter the name or IP address of the Terminal Server.

You can either provide your log on information immediately or do it later when connecting o the server. You can select the screen resolution you want to connect in. Finally you can choose to enable data compression, and bitmap caching for your connection. The wizard also allows you to place a shortcut for this connection in your Stat Menu.

That’s it, your connection is now ready. Click on its icon, and you should see a windows open up with a Windows2000

desktop.