ANY IDEAS ON HOW TO RUN PROGRAMS OFF A SERVER?

[hololog99]

I am an admin responsible for about 20 computers and a server on a network at a small business. Does anyone have any ideas on how to setup an application server to run basic office programs such as a web browser, email, word processing, spreadsheets etc? I would love to be able to make everyone a terminal client and run all the programs off of the server so that updates are fast and easy. Can this be done trhough small business server 2003? I don't really have any programming skills so I would need a 3rd party solution. Also if there is an open source "free" solution I would love to hear about it.

Thanks for the help.

 

[fredweston]

Sure, that's exactly what MS terminal services is for. You'll have to buy licenses for every user though.

 

[lotussama]

However, Small Business Server won't run in Application Server mode. You'd need to upgrade to Windows Server Standard Edition.

 

[DeadFire]

Or you could just set up a computer on the network running Linux that has a free terminal server built in! I would go with Red Hat 9.

 

[Iceblue]

Or you could just set up a computer on the network running Linux that has a free terminal server built in! I would go with Red Hat 9.

A terminal server is not the same as an application server.

 

[DeadFire]

Dude, bug off... You have came through here and tried to diss all my comments. Well whatever it doesn't bother me any. Yes, you can use a terminal server to execute applications. And Linux can do that. End of story...

 

[Iceblue]

The OP wanted to serve applications to his PCs, not run them remotely with a terminal. Big difference. Dude.

Unless you are actually suggesting that he, an admitted non-programmer, convert a small office of 20 PCs to Linux and spend the rest of his career holding their hands.

Besides, I'm not "trying to diss" your comments. I am correcting your errors and misstatements and stating my opinion. If you don't want other opinions that disagree with yours, don't post on a public board. And, don't take things so personally. I have no idea who you are.

You stated (in another thread) that you are in the military. Thank you for your service.

 

[DeadFire]

My apologizes I didn't mean to get "hot headed". Thank you for the thanks of being in the military. Well you don't need to convert the whole network to Linux. Linux has a feature, SMB, that works both ways with Linux and Windows file transfer. I am running a game server where the games are accessed off a Linux machine, but being ran by a Windows machine. So it is possible to do it. Just make a machine with Linux, set up some SMB accounts, then tell everyone about it. You will also have to make a script launcher for it. That isn't to hard you can find one off the internet.

 

[shanequinn11]

to the post above how easy is this to set setup as im looking to do the same.
have a liunx server with a game on and able to use it with a windows pc remotely
if this is possable please someone give me some extra details on how to or websites for more info please
thankyou

 

[shanequinn11]

am i heading in the right places ??

http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/setupltsp.shtml

http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/sambaserver.shtml

 

[Catsrules]

I don't know if a terminal servers is worth it. Most update can be set to automatic, and auto download and install, when you tell them to. Also if all of you computer are the same, you can set on up the way you like it and image it then and multicast the image to all of the rest of them, and they are all perfectly how you want them to be. Don't have you clients save anything locally on there computer, save it all to a network share, so if that computer dies they don't loose anything, and you just reimage it and there back to where they were.
Terminal server will cost a lot of money, might just cause more problem then it will fix.
But there are defiant advantages with it, for example it doesn't matter what computer you clients use, there log in will always get them to there desktop. If they need help, you can control there terminal session, from you computer and not have to go to them to help. Also Remote desktop protocol, is very popular, almost all operating system has a client for it, People can log in to the server from an Ipad, Iphone, Windows Mobile, windows, android device, linux, Apple computer.

I would give it a try, before you do any thing serious, You can download server 2008 from Microsoft, and install it on a spare computer or a virtual machine . You get like 120day free trial for testing Server including the terminal services.

As far as email and work possessing goes,
MSOffice Is a very nice package, will give you everything you want. And most every business and people uses it, and know how to use it. (I would use this one, if money wasn't a concern)
If you want a free solution Open office for documents and Thunderbird for email client will work.

@shanequinn11
No terminal servers isn't what you are looking for, you are looking for a remote desktop application.
Terminal services are for multiple people using one computer.
Remote desktop, is just for one person or to be more accurate one user using one computer.
Do some searches for remote desktop applications for linux, I there is a program called UltraVNC I think is supports linux as well as windows. I think there is also a remote desktop server you can install on linux, and use Microsoft's native Remote desktop connections program to access you Linux box.
What type of game is this? Most games don't play well with remote desktop programs. Solitaire and minesweeper are about as far as you can go with games. I think I tried starcraft over RDP once, it sorta worked
Your other link about samba server is a file server that windows can access.

 

[shanequinn11]

thankyou for reply
can a terminal server be accessed from the internet or is this a LAN kind of thing only
also would the game have to run on the server or can it just be stored there and be run on other PCs

 

[gtvr]

You could use windows server & run WSUS (free with windows server, not sure if small business server supports it). This will handle all windows updates. Certain apps such as the browser etc you might have to do manually (if you use say firefox), java updates etc. There's ways to push these though, you can use group policies to push updates.

I wouldn't mess with setting up a linux server to solve your windows problem. SMB doesn't fix anything for you.

 

[Catsrules]

thankyou for reply
can a terminal server be accessed from the internet or is this a LAN kind of thing only
also would the game have to run on the server or can it just be stored there and be run on other PCs

Yeah, you can. You just need to port forward the right port on your router. just look up the port, for what ever Remote application you are useing, then you just type in your internet Ip find it at whatismyip.com, And your in.

yeah you just setup that Samba server you found, and you can set up a network share. And exicute the program from the network share stored on the linux server.