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From: MCScrapE on 14 Jul 2006 14:25
I have a group of users across the U.S. and I am setting up a Windows
2003 Terminal Server for them. They wish to use ACT! 2006 in
client/server setup where the server maintains the master database and
users can sync with it so they can use ACT! when offline. Naturally,
when they come back online they can sync their changes. I am trying to
do this with terminal services only and not have to deploy a VPN. If
it comes down to it I will deploy VPN but I like keeping things as
simple as possible when dealing with end-users.

Here is my idea. I would have the users connect to terminal services
mapping their local drives through the Local Resources options. The
drives appear on the terminal session as type of Other and are
described as a System folder. The question: is there any way to have
applications save data to the local drives of the user from ACT!
running on the terminal server? I would think there has to be some way
to reference each user's local drive but I have yet to find it.

The only drawback if I could get this to work would be I could get the
data to the user this way but this method would not allow data to come
from the user to the master database but this would be an ACT!
functionality issue primarily.

Any feedback or suggestions is welcomed.

Thank you.

From: Vera Noest [MVP] on 14 Jul 2006 15:36
Does this happen from all clients? Your users local drives should
be shown as "C on <client>" and be accessible as such from within
your application.
From http://ts.veranoest.net/ts_faq.htm

Q. How can I copy files to my local disk drive from the command
prompt / with a batch file?

A. In My Computer, your redirected local drives are shown as "C on
<your_client_name>" and you can use the normal techniques for
copying files in the GUI between your TS drives and your local
drives. To copy files to your local drives from a command window or
with a batch file, use the following command:
copy <path_on_TS> \\tsclient\<drive_letter_on_client>
\<path_on_client>

Example: if you want to copy C:\test\test.txt on the Terminal
Server to D:\user1\data on your client, use the following command:
copy C:\test\test.txt \\tscient\D\user1\data

_________________________________________________________
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
___ please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ___

"MCScrapE" <MCScrapE(a)hotmail.com> wrote on 14 jul 2006 in
microsoft.public.windows.terminal_services:

> I have a group of users across the U.S. and I am setting up a
> Windows 2003 Terminal Server for them. They wish to use ACT!
> 2006 in client/server setup where the server maintains the
> master database and users can sync with it so they can use ACT!
> when offline. Naturally, when they come back online they can
> sync their changes. I am trying to do this with terminal
> services only and not have to deploy a VPN. If it comes down to
> it I will deploy VPN but I like keeping things as simple as
> possible when dealing with end-users.
>
> Here is my idea. I would have the users connect to terminal
> services mapping their local drives through the Local Resources
> options. The drives appear on the terminal session as type of
> Other and are described as a System folder. The question: is
> there any way to have applications save data to the local drives
> of the user from ACT! running on the terminal server? I would
> think there has to be some way to reference each user's local
> drive but I have yet to find it.
>
> The only drawback if I could get this to work would be I could
> get the data to the user this way but this method would not
> allow data to come from the user to the master database but this
> would be an ACT! functionality issue primarily.
>
> Any feedback or suggestions is welcomed.
>
> Thank you.
From: Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] on 15 Jul 2006 09:42


In news:1152901547.592692.264580(a)h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com,
MCScrapE <MCScrapE(a)hotmail.com> typed:
> I have a group of users across the U.S. and I am setting up a Windows
> 2003 Terminal Server for them. They wish to use ACT! 2006 in
> client/server setup where the server maintains the master database and
> users can sync with it so they can use ACT! when offline. Naturally,
> when they come back online they can sync their changes. I am trying
> to do this with terminal services only and not have to deploy a VPN.
> If it comes down to it I will deploy VPN but I like keeping things as
> simple as possible when dealing with end-users.
>
> Here is my idea. I would have the users connect to terminal services
> mapping their local drives through the Local Resources options. The
> drives appear on the terminal session as type of Other and are
> described as a System folder. The question: is there any way to have
> applications save data to the local drives of the user from ACT!
> running on the terminal server? I would think there has to be some
> way to reference each user's local drive but I have yet to find it.
>
> The only drawback if I could get this to work would be I could get the
> data to the user this way but this method would not allow data to come
> from the user to the master database but this would be an ACT!
> functionality issue primarily.
>
> Any feedback or suggestions is welcomed.
>
> Thank you.

If their local workstations require access to the server where the ACT
database lives, I seriously doubt that TS is going to be useful for you. I
doubt that drive redirection will work - ACT on the client workstation isn't
going to know anything about it. I don't think ACT synchronization is as
simple as a file copy, is it?

What's wrong with VPN? Have you looked into an SSL VPN appliance, such as
SonicWALL (and others) have?


From: MCScrapE on 24 Jul 2006 17:20
I subsequently found a way to map a drive with terminal session user's
hard drive as Vera pointed out \\tsclient\<drive letter>. The question
now is how to sync My Documents on ther TS profile to their laptops. I
have looked at several third party backup/sync apps but none of them
seem to support multiple users i.e. more than one user using the app at
the same time.

The reason I am not using VPN is a client requirement. They want all
their data (even user specific data i.e. My Documents) to reside on the
server. They want the server to be the master copy of all data and
have the ability to sync this data with their respective notebooks.
While a VPN solution could work my concern is bandwidth. With database
applications and any client/server apps performance could be a big
factor hence my decision to use Terminal Services. Since the client
wants to have only a single solution hence the full circle back to
mapping drives/offline files.

Looks like these issues will be addressed with Longhorn but still
trying to come up with something in the interim. :-)

Thank you

From: Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] on 26 Jul 2006 11:14


In news:1153776057.269844.112080(a)m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com,
MCScrapE <MCScrapE(a)hotmail.com> typed:
> I subsequently found a way to map a drive with terminal session user's
> hard drive as Vera pointed out \\tsclient\<drive letter>. The
> question now is how to sync My Documents on ther TS profile to their
> laptops. I have looked at several third party backup/sync apps but
> none of them seem to support multiple users i.e. more than one user
> using the app at the same time.
>
> The reason I am not using VPN is a client requirement. They want all
> their data (even user specific data i.e. My Documents) to reside on
> the server. They want the server to be the master copy of all data
> and have the ability to sync this data with their respective
> notebooks. While a VPN solution could work my concern is bandwidth.
> With database applications and any client/server apps performance
> could be a big factor hence my decision to use Terminal Services.
> Since the client wants to have only a single solution hence the full
> circle back to mapping drives/offline files.
>
> Looks like these issues will be addressed with Longhorn but still
> trying to come up with something in the interim. :-)
>
> Thank you

Why can't you use both? Use TS *and* a VPN so they can sync their ACT data
alone? I understand they want a single solution, but what if there isn't one
that meets all of their needs?


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