how thin client works?

[mmkhan]

hi all,
i am trying to find a tutorial for "How thin client works?" or "How diskless system works?" but unable to do so. I also looked into ltsp.org but was unable to find any conceptual guide for its working. If any one having gone through this before will like to help me?

Thanks

[HTRegz]

Hey Hey,

I don't have a lot of time right now, so I can't give an indepth monitor... but if no-one else answers, I'll come back and give a more detailed answer.

The idea of a thin client is great... all companies should run them... When I did my final year project in college (which you can find in the addicts forum), I used thin clients for almost all systems... (Network Services, etc were the few exceptions)..

Anyways... the thin client knows certain protocols... RDP, VNC, Citrix. I've seen various ones with different options.. There's actually a great thin client CD to turn any PC into a thin client (Diskless computer).. You can get details on it at http://thinstation.sourceforge.net/w...ex.php/ThIndex

So you specify the settings on the Thin Client and when it boots it connects into your terminal server (for example)... So you've got Windows 2000 running Terminal Services in Terminal Server mode (Not Administrative Mode).. and when your clients boot, they connect using the stored settings the same as you connect when you run remote desktop... except they can't exit it.. It's all there is... They then use the "remote desktop" connection and act as if it's their computer...

That's the basis of thin clients.

Peace
HT

[Darkk_Inferno]

I work for Cingular Wireless (Blah, don't get me started...) and we use "Citrix" as a thin client for some of our systems which allows them to update them on the server as opposed to on everyone's computer. The bad side of this is if one of the blades is having hardware issues, it causes a lot of people to either be without systems or with extremly cramped slowed down systems.

Here's a few links I've found, hopefully they help:

http://www.informit.com/articles/art...?p=370627&rl=1
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Thinclient-HOWTO.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client
http://www.thinplanet.com/

[mmkhan]

guys thanks for the relpy,
i just wanted to confirm that thin client has RAM in them the only thing they lack is hard disk. Another thing is that Xserver is running on the clients themselves (not on the server) the data processing takes place on the server and the results are displayed on clients using the xserver of clients. Am i right or i am missing any thing.

Thanks

[The Texan]

My company is now using blades basically all I have on my desk is a monitor and keyboard the actually "box" is in the server room. is this what yall are talking about?

p.s. Inferno: my company also uses Citrix but we use it for remote assistance purposes on customers pcs.

[mmkhan]

Originally posted here by The Texan
My company is now using blades basically all I have on my desk is a monitor and keyboard the actually "box" is in the server room. is this what yall are talking about?

p.s. Inferno: my company also uses Citrix but we use it for remote assistance purposes on customers pcs.

yes exactly i am talking about the same very thing.

[|3lack|ce]

mm - I know this thread is now 7 months old and that probably tells you how often I search this forum anymore - but seeing as your question was never truly answered and that I was at one time employed building the bloody things, I'll give you a bit better look at them, as far as 6 year old information goes:

Inside a thin client box is a mobo with onboard video, onboard nic, ram, and a flash drive (eprom) which functions in place of the hard drive. An operating system is loaded onto this flash drive (we used Linux), along with the software necessary for it to perform its function. Since the business I worked for dealt with point of sale (POS) systems (think cash registers with a upc scanner added on) and inventory tracking for hardware stores, the software needed to retrieve data and perform calculations was loaded in, along with those protocols necessary to send the retrieved data and numbers to the server.

With Thin Client everything is performed at the server - this means that the POS isn't really doing anything other than collecting input and passing this input along, and driving a monitor and upc scanner, but I'm sure with today's technology they could be programmed to do much more.

Our biggest issue in building these thin clients (ABCS was one of the first into the market with these by the way - ABCSINC.com and I no longer work there but was systems administrator in 1999-2000) was heat. It was extremely difficult to adequately cool the processor and ram within such a small box, but it WAS possible given 'wind tunneling' - strategically placed pieces of styrofoam specially cut to cause airflow over key components in a certain sequence (hottest cooled first, etc) through high speed fans. Remember that in 2000 1.2Ghz was the "You can't buy it yet but it's out there" fastest processor speed - we used 1.0Ghz chips in our thin clients with good effect, but even with wind tunneling 1.2's would quickly fry. When I left the company research was still being performed into cooling the faster chipsets, and I'm quite sure MUCH faster chips and much more versatile thin clients are available today.

Hope that helped!

[morganlefay]

Old thread ...that I must of missed...

Good thing it was brought back...

Cause I like the function of thin clients....thats what they do...specific functions...

I worked with them too many moons ago to offer any opinion or recommendation....But I really like the move back towards thin clients in business

Because there is no hardrive...the user cannot...and does not need any sort of control of the configuration of the machine\OS...just the profile...

The machine is or should be "task" specific....and everything else is server based..

In theroy...it should be a much more secure setup then the desktop\server LAN.....as it would be a true client\server environment.

It will really depend on the function of the machine....some users will still need workstations.....graphics, engineers....sys admins


IM everso HO

as always

MLF