OT: Thin Clients, Anybody know anything Options

[scruz914]

Sounds like some good information has been given here as a guide.

My .02: At 30 PCs you should probably be thinking about hiring a service to do your installations and maintenance. I am thinking along the lines of what it sounds like Andy and Scott do. You really want to be focused on your core business competency and not screwing around with software, hardware, and networks. Find someone who talks at your level of understanding, doesn't talk down to you when you describe what you are looking for, and you feel comfortable with. Consider IT costs the same as your rent utilities, etc.

[Root_Werks]

QUOTE (rdauenhauer @ Jan 21 2005, 09:04 AM)

Hmm I was gonna chime in as Ive BTDT (and still do)... it seemed to much like WORK!!! (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/mad.gif) and thats why I kick around on this board to escape (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wacko.gif) the dreaded paying job. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/ar15.gif) (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/lol2.gif)

Rich, is that a version of the ICA/Citrix family? I set up lots of those years back. Worked pretty dam good too. We were able to keep a bunch of W3.12 machines through the Y2K circus. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wacko.gif)

[Root_Werks]

QUOTE (scruz914 @ Jan 21 2005, 09:21 AM)

Sounds like some good information has been given here as a guide. My .02: At 30 PCs you should probably be thinking about hiring a service to do your installations and maintenance. I am thinking along the lines of what it sounds like Andy and Scott do. You really want to be focused on your core business competency and not screwing around with software, hardware, and networks. Find someone who talks at your level of understanding, doesn't talk down to you when you describe what you are looking for, and you feel comfortable with. Consider IT costs the same as your rent utilities, etc.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/agree.gif) I was doing a favor for a friend setting up a new network for them until the receptionist started treating me like shit. I told him I wasn't making any real money off of it so tell her to shut up. He didn't, I walked. Go find someone else and pay them $$$ to set it up then.

Yep, find someone who you don't "Know" so you can keep things in check. My $.02. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wink.gif)

[rhilgers]

Thin clients dont pay off under 150 workstations.

I did the worlds first full PeopleSoft over Citrix rollout years back when I worked at NEC.
I can tell you vendors have no idea how complex it is and how thin clients show every weakness in software.

But..since you asked...

Licencing is for CONCURRENT useage for most apps.
MS office is the easist to deploy and Citrix / Term services include semi-automated installs for it.

Security is next to none. A savy user could see anyone elses data. A real stupid user can crash the system.
The core of the issue is that each user needs full access to \system32 files on the server.
Lockup whatever toolbars and features you want. As long as so much as an Excel macro can run, its all downhill from there.

Like others have said.
1. Use Ghost.
2. If you can just stop using IE and switch to Firefox. This solve most of the adware issues.
3. Use OWA or another web client instead of Outlook
4. Setup the print server to allow printers to be mapped through the browser.

This way a user could recover from a meltdown and still be productive without intervention.

-Rich Hilgersom

[Rockaria]

I am an IT admin for a university library and I have over 500 identical computers to maintain. Here is what I do and its easy.

No matter the computer, its nice that they are all the same. Set one up perfectly. Since my users will not install or change software I can lock them down. I use a really cool piece of software called DeepFreeze. This allows me to lock in the computer so that every time it boots it deletes all crap, temp files, and everything. It basically sets the computer to a perfect state at reboot. So no matter how messed up the user leaves it it boots perfectly.

The software installs a partition for the MyDocuments folder so the user can save stuff if needed. Then all the apps use "login to" a 2003 Server system to share databases and to have another location to save stuff. But that is not nessessary for a small cluster, you could use one of the machines to do peer-to-peer file sharing if needed.

Then I use the Ghost software to make a bootable DVD that can quickly clone the machine as many times as I need. YES, all 500 have the exact same install codes and numbers, BUT I have 500 registered "Site License" software agreements with each of my software vendors on file.

The rest is simple. I have reduced IT and computer problem to almost nothing. The system works perfectly and in 5 years it is still going strong with only small mechanical things to fix one or twice a month.

I hope this helps a little,

[anthony]

QUOTE

Consider IT costs the same as your rent utilities, etc.

Many small businesses fail at this. They often can't see past the initial cost of the box and software. In reality it costs up to $2K per year per workstation to keep the network going. With a 30 node Windows network, probably a couple servers, email, and a web site you probably have enough work for a half time person.