Jul 132012
 

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing solutions for some of the most frequently asked questions posed to our ThinManager Technical Support team.  This weekly feature will help educate ThinManager users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great technical support is an essential part of the ThinManager platform, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

Q- I am using ThinManager 5.0 and have two Arista thin clients running over wireless and need to know if there is a selection to download to the client so that it will go to sleep if there are no processes running?  If so, what can I do to get the client to wake up without downloading from its server?

 

A - Our screen saver module will activate after a set time period (30 minutes is the default).  It also has a Disable Time Period that can be used to force the screen saver off during your normal business hours.

See section 15.12.2 Screen Saver Module in

http://www.thinmanager.com/technotes/01_Intro/Manual60/TM6_Chapter15_Modules.pdf

-TM

__________________

 

 

Q- What is the max resolution supported on the VGA and DVI on the ThinManager Ready Arista 3300?

 

A – The maximum resolution is 1920×1440

-TM

__________________

 

 

Q- I found this adapter to be used as video port. It states it operates via a DL-195 chipset. Do you think it would work?

 http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-UGA-2K-A-2048×1152-1920×1200-DisplayLink/dp/B0038P1TP4

How many extra monitors can I have using this adapter with a single thin client? If it has 4 USB ports, can I buy 4 adapters and have 4 extra monitors?

 

 

A - Yes, we support a maximum of five monitors, so the onboard port and four additional via USB.

-TM

__________________

Jul 112012
 

Imagine having the power to turn a PC work station into an easy to manage secure terminal in any industrial situation. Now imagine that work station being a simple and reliable system with increased functionality paired with decreased ownership cost. Your imagination is here.

With WinTMC, ThinManager provides a complete solution for organizations that need to use PCs as part of their terminal server network. For many network administrators, WinTMC may be the missing piece to help their network be more cost effective, productive and easier to manage.

 

Having the versatile ThinManager functions such as SmartSession, MultiSession, AppLink, Instant Failover, TermSecure and MultiMonitor, available on your Windows PC, makes Win TMC an easy choice for many network administrators. You will now have more options when managing, configuring and designing your entire Terminal Server Network, at a fraction of the cost.

As network administrators know, management and configuration of PCs can be the most significant cost in determining your network’s Total Cost of Ownership. The lower cost of WinTMC can be contributed to the fact that it allows you to manage your PCs and host applications on Terminal Servers for both thin clients and PCs. So, not only can you centrally configure WinTMC using ThinManager, but you can also manage the PC directly from ThinManager. How easy is that? Network Administrators can also use ThinManager’s shadowing capability to remotely view and control the PC’s desktop even when the user does not have an active terminal server session.

Another benefit is that WinTMC can also be configured to act just like a ThinManager Ready Thin Client – ideal for gradually moving from PCs to dedicated ThinManager Ready Thin Clients. Providing flexibility in your IT budget to invest in new Thin Client hardware when it’s best for you is paramount in our design. You don’t have to compromise on your budget or on your hardware.  Many of our customers have enjoyed the ease and low cost benefits of migrating their networks on their time schedule.

Preparing to run WinTMC is not complicated.  First, you install the software, which can either be downloaded off the web or installed off a disk.  Next is to run the software and tell it where to find ThinManager.  You can create the terminals during this step, or you can pre-create them before the install.  This insures all that is needed is simply assigning terminals from the list already created.  Configuring ThinManager is as easy as a right click and adding a new terminal. The Wizard takes you through the rest of the steps.

Running WinTMC on your PCs in conjunction with dedicated ThinManager Ready hardware provides a complete Terminal Server Network solution. ThinManager allows you to centralize the configuration and management of your entire Terminal Server Network in a single software product, even providing management of your Terminal Servers. Ease of use, decreased cost, increased flexibility, security and COMP Support make the addition of WinTMC an obvious choice for improving efficiency while lowering operating costs.  Adding to peace of mind is the failover option.  If the server goes down, ThinManager automatically shifts to the next server.  No time, or money is lost. If a company were running a standard Microsoft RDP Client, they would have to configure each reconnection manually on each PC, adding to down time and cost. When it comes to the question of comprehensive Terminal Server Network solutions, ThinManager has the answer.

Jun 262012
 

News Release

For Immediate Release: June 27, 2012
 
ACP ThinManager to release Munici-Pack Licensing

 

ALPHARETTA, GEORGIA—ACP (Automation Control Products), a worldwide leader in the automation industry that provides full-feature centralized thin client and terminal server management software, has announced that they will be releasing a new “Munici-Pack” licensing option. Unlike standard ThinManager license packs that require the full installation to be in one physical location, the Munici-Packs allow a municipality the flexibility to use purchased licenses anywhere within their jurisdiction.  This licensing option uses the recently released ThinManager 6.0 Platform which has several new functions and features such as iTMC, which allows any Apple iPad to run as a portable, wireless thin client, as well as worldwide remote access capability and improved support for a wide range of hardware and components.  Specifics of the Munici-Pack License model can be found via the following link:

http://www.thinmanager.com/water/

The Munici-Pack also offers open access to Xmanage from Screentronix, which is a Remote Server Management tool that allows licensed ThinManager users the ability to securely connect to their ThinManager Server(s) from anywhere in the world.

ThinManager’s complete thin client software allows municipalities to replace PCs with industrialized thin clients one at a time to eliminate the financial impact of replacing all of their hardware at once.  Industrial thin clients can be placed anywhere you are currently using a PC to interact with your plant environment.  If necessary, you can even run an existing PC as a thin client using the WinTMC application included with ThinManager 6.0.  The benefit of industrial ThinManager Ready thin clients is that they can withstand the harsh conditions of water facilities much better than a PC with more than double the expected lifespan.

ACP’s ThinManager is currently installed in water facilities all across the United States.  They have a proven track record in the water industry and have been deploying their technology into water facilities for more than a decade.

 ACP (Automation Control Products), based in Alpharetta, Georgia, is a worldwide leader in the automation industry specializing in Thin Client management software used by nearly 1 in 10 of all Fortune 500 companies.  For more information, contact Tom Jordan, Vice President of Marketing, at (678)-990-0945 or via email at tjordan@thinmanager.com.

__________________________

 

For an overview of how ThinManager can help manage your Water Facilities click here.

To read about how we simplified operations for the city of Riverside, California click here.

 

Jun 132012
 

Over the course of the last decade, the growth of thin client computing in factories and industrial environments has continued to increase as demand has steadily risen.   In these facilities, where environmental and safety factors are often the primary influence when deciding on a reliable computing platform, there is a definite need for technology that replaces the PC.  As a machine, the PC is not intended to operate in an area filled with vibration, airborne particulates, or hazardous gases.   Such concerns and factors explain why there is constant growth in the industrial thin client computing arena.  But this beckons the question, if industrial operations continue moving to the thin client because they HAVE TO, then what is the impetus for the front office CHOOSING TO?

The simple answer is that switching to a server based thin client computing environment provides the same benefits regardless of where it is implemented.  First on that list of benefits is a drastically lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).  This includes the purchase of new thin client hardware, server hardware, initial network configuration, and maintenance services.  Regardless of your current computing environment, there is always a constant influx of new machines to replace those that break down or have become obsolete.  This is an established expenditure that is part of doing business in an electronic world.  The following cost estimate shows a breakdown of the average TCO for both a PC and a thin client.

Nubis Cloud Technology Cost Estimate

While this cost savings is magnified with each thin client deployed in place of a PC, the cost benefit is only one reason to make the switch.  In addition to the reduced hardware cost, there are a number of other money saving factors including a reduction of per unit energy consumption of up to 80%, reduced per seat software licensing fees, and IT overages.  With the ability to implement a feature such as WinTMC that allows your current PCs to operate as a thin client, any company can make the switch to a server based computing environment one thin client at a time.  This eliminates the need for a large initial hardware investment while providing flexibility to your current network architecture.

If lower cost and flexibility aren’t enough to motivate you to make the switch, perhaps the additional security will.  In a server based computing environment, the server itself is the only possible point of external attack.  By focusing on keeping a few servers secure instead of hundreds of PCs across a network, you can create a more focused security plan without having to maintain multiple programs and filters on every single workstation. This eliminates the possibility of individual users infecting a machine when web browsing or checking email.  With the addition of ThinManager TermSecure, your network administrator can increase security by restricting user access to specific terminals or adding hardware validation requirements such as security FOBs or RFID cards.

Consistency and “up time” should also be considered when deciding to make the move away from PCs.  Server based Redundancy, Redundant Ethernet, and Automatic Failover will ensure that if a server or network leg goes down or is suddenly taken offline, not only is user data preserved, but users will be able to continue working on a parallel instance of their current session.  A ThinManager Platform environment will not only allow such functions, but also offers a wide variety of standard features that can be assigned for specific uses such as the MultiMonitor function or remote management for offsite IT monitoring.

Considering the wealth of opportunities for savings with a thin client network, and the endless cycle of fixing and upgrading PCs, it is clear that the front office could learn a thing or two about Total Cost of Ownership from the factory floor.

 

Jun 082012
 

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing Technical Support emails we have recently received.  Our hope is that this weekly feature will help to educate other ThinManager users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great Technical Support is an essential part of any software product, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

Hello,

Is the ThinManager Mobile for Android and Windows Phone 7 coming soon ?

-Deepack S.

 

 

Deepack,

We are working on developing the mobile application for other devices but currently offer the following mobile options in the Apple App Store:

 

ThinManager Mobile (v1.4.1) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/thinmanager/id419214021?mt=8

ThinManager iTMC (v1.1)  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itmc/id517350971?mt=8

-TM

___________________________

 

 

ThinManager,

We are running a redundant system and just complete setting up the iPad connection.  In order to get this to work had to upgrade our secondary server to version 6 and I used a demo license.  Now that the system is proven to be stable I would like to move some production clients on to the one that has Version 6 on it.  Can I relicense it with our license and still be able to upgrade our primary server later?  The issue is the Demo Software disclaimer and this will disrupt production clients.

-Richard A.

 

 

Richard,

Your license is eligible to upgrade to ThinManager 6 on both computers. The install ID changes when you upgrade so you need to reactivate your license

You can’t run both TM5 and TM6 in a synchronized system. You need to un-sync before upgrading the one.  If they are un-synched the TM5 system will continue to run as is. Its license will stay valid.  The upgraded system needs its license reactivated. You can reactivate the copy on the TM6 server with its new Install ID, leaving the remaining TM5 one the same as it is/was.  Apply the new license to the TM6 computer. It will now have a valid license. DON’T SYNCH THEM.

When you are ready to upgrade your TM5 computer to TM6 you can at will, synchronize, and re-activate with the now new installation ID from the second computer.

-TM

______________

 

 

Hello,

I have downloaded the ThinManager 6 to try on our redundant servers.  I have everything set up, with the ThinManager running on both the primary and back up server, and configured a thin client from the primary server.

 

The issue I’m faced with is that when AppLink is specified, as soon as the thin client boots logs into the server with its login/pw, it automatically logs off.  I can see under the Users tab in Task Manager on the server that the client is indeed logging in and then it logs off regardless of the primary or back up server.  Also, the logging in/out activity is documented under the ThinManager event log tab.  When I don’t have AppLink enabled, thin client logs on and is fine.

 

I thought it may have been a permissions issue so I’ve tested the AppLink with Internet Explorer, same issue of logging in and out with the thin client.  However when I don’t have AppLink and the thin client logs into the server, I can manually start Internet Explorer (meaning that it shouldn’t be a permissions problem).

 

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

-William C.

 

 

William,

Microsoft won’t let you run a specific program on a 2008 server. By default you are limited to a desktop.
Check the Server 2008 Tech Note at http://www.thinmanager.com/technotes/10_Microsoft/2008ServerTips.pdf for details on changing the setting that allows AppLink to work. It is on pages 8-11.

-TM

_____________

 

 

Dear support members,

 

I am using ThinManger 6.0 with a demo code.

Here is my configuration:

 

ThinManger Server:

Thinmanager is installed on windows xp sp3.

I created an administrative user which launches the service.

DNS is configured

 

Display server:

The terminal server is a VM XP SP3.

I created an administrative user with the same password as the Thinmanger server.

I can reach this machine with a windows rdp client.

 

Both ThinManager and Display server are not member of an active directory.

 

I tried to fill the field domain with the name of the machine, but keep getting the following error meassage: “WTSAPI32.dll connection failed.”

Any ideas?

-David B.

 

 

David,

1) The WTSAPI32.dll Failed message means that the ThinServer service can’t talk to the terminal server yet. It doesn’t mean a terminal can’t connect and run, you just can’t get the Users, Sessions, and Processes used in SmartSession load balancing.

 

Workstations like XP have a different security system than Servers and there are a few settings that need to be changed. It sounds like you’ve done several but I think you’re missing a DCOM configuration change or UAC setting change.

 

Look at these Tech Notes and make sure you’ve got the settings changed:

 

http://www.thinmanager.com/technotes/13_Errors/DCOM_Issues.pdf

http://www.thinmanager.com/technotes/13_Errors/XP_DCOM_Issues.pdf

http://www.thinmanager.com/technotes/13_Errors/RemoteConnectionTrouble.pdf

 

2) If you are using DNS you need to use the Microsoft name for the server and not the IP address in the Terminal Server Name Field.

 

-TM

_________________

 

 

May 252012
 

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing Technical Support emails we have recently received.  Our hope is that this weekly feature will help to educate other ThinManager users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great Technical Support is an essential part of any software product, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

 

Hi guys,

We have a customer that is looking to confirm that the WinTMC installation is supported in Windows 7. Can you let me know if the current 2.1.0.5 version is supported in Win7?

Thanks,

Doug

 

 

Yes, make sure the firewall is open.

-TM

_______________________________

 

 

Hello,

I am trying to get the ThinManager system set up at my site and have a few questions. First question is when I try and use the iPad “ThinManager” app I am unable to connect to my ThinManager server. The error I encounter is “Connection failed because Socket Error”. The next problem is that we have all Devon IT thin clients which can use the PXE boot to connect, However when I put them on the real network the default Microsoft PXE server that we use overrides the ThinManager PXE server. Is there a way in the ThinManager software to force primacy on a specific ip range? Last but not least I am not sure how exactly to set up a client to open a specific program instead of running a full RDP session. If someone can clear up these issues for me I would appreciate it.

Respectfully,

Jesse M

 

 

Do you have the proxy service installed and running?  You can download it from here: http://www.thinmanager.com/ios/iosProxy1.php if you haven’t already.

 

There is no way for PXE responses to be prioritized.  The thin client will try to connect to the first valid response that it gets.  You can set ThinManager to only respond to clients it knows about, but I’m unaware of a way to setup other PXE servers to do the same.   If you need the other PXE server you can set up ThinManager and your thin clients on one subnet and the other PXE server on another subnet.  Otherwise, if you don’t need it, it would be easiest if you just disabled the other PXE server.

 

To get a thin client to launch an initial program using display clients:

http://www.thinmanager.com/technotes/01_Intro/Manual60/TM6_Chapter13_Display%20Clients.pdf

-TM

_____________________________

 

 

 

Hi,

Our customer would like to know if their license can be used to add another display terminal server to their primary node.  They currently only have one display terminal server on this node.

Are there any further details you require in order to confirm this?

Thanks,

 

Colin B

 

 

 

They can add terminal servers to their system with no change to ACP licensing. We license terminals, not the terminal connections.

-TM

_________________________________

 

 

 

Hello,

I downloaded ThinManager 6.0 on your web site and I want to know if our license 5.0 will work with the 6.0 version.

MARC R

 


 

 

 

Yes it will.  You will need to reactivate your license with the new installation IDs though once you have 6.0 installed.  You can find the new installation IDs under Install > Licenses in ThinManager.

-TM

 

May 232012
 


 

Unless you live under a rock on a deserted island, chances are you have heard about, considered using, or are moving toward “The Cloud.”  It is now a prevalent and unavoidable topic of conversation that has finally made its way from computing industry professionals to the general populace.   In the very near future, “The Cloud” will have become just another term in the lexicon of technology that people accept as a part of their daily computer activity, even if they don’t entirely understand it.  Much like instant messaging, search engine, the web, and Wi-Fi, the cloud is rapidly becoming as much a part of our daily lives as the bowl of cereal we have to start our day.

So how is it that most people can’t actually explain what the cloud is or where it came from?  How can something that is rapidly becoming a standard still be such a vague mystery to most who use it?  Rather than wondering how this phenomenon evolved, I thought it might be a great use of this space to explain how the cloud actually came to be.  My hope is that by understanding where the cloud came from, the reader can see how it will continue to develop.

The Cloud had very humble beginnings in the 1960’s as a future concept discussed by people like Joseph Licklider and Douglas Parkhill.  And while that discussion continued for decades, it was a very slow evolution from concept to proof of concept as developers and futurists were forced to wait for technology to develop a strong foundation upon which the concept could be explored.

Once internet service had begun to invade homes across the world in the 1990’s, the development and deployment of the infrastructure for rapid development of a grid (both electrical and computing) hit terminal velocity, as demand far outweighed supply.  For the first time, the intranet / local network architecture employed by large businesses in enclosed environments could be employed on a much bigger open scale.  This leap forward led to the birth of global pioneers like VMware and Salesforce who led the way in proliferating concepts such as SaaS (Software as a Service) and Virtualization.

With the success of this new internet model, which allowed individual users to integrate online content from anywhere with their own individual website / digital presence, the cloud was well on its way to becoming the natural evolution of the current model of hardline internet service and data sharing.   In 2003, Nicholas Carr began publishing a series of articles and books about the future growth of cloud computing under the banner “IT Doesn’t Matter” where he extrapolated that internet access and use would become a common and accepted commodity like other utilities such as water or electricity.

After that, the dominoes continued to fall quickly.  Throughout the decade there was a string of advances including Amazon’s IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) model which laid the foundation for the “pay-for-use” cloud business model, the PaaS (Platform as a Service) model developed by Salesforce via Force.com, and the open source cloud platform created by Eucalyptus.  This, in turn, led to market giants such as Google and Gartner taking notice and making sure that everyone else did as well.

Since then, the paradigm has shifted as continuing technological advances have outpaced the ability of both futurists and market experts to predict the next advancement in data storage and sharing.  But for the time being, it is comforting to know that we live in an age where a walk through the clouds requires nothing more than sitting at a desk and clicking a mouse.

 

May 172012
 

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing Technical Support emails we have recently received.  Our hope is that this weekly feature will help to educate other ThinManager users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great Technical Support is an essential part of any software product, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

We are looking to roll out more thin clients at our plants.  One thing we are wanting to do is give Plant Area leaders the ability configure users through Wonderware InTouch.  Is there a way to set a TermSecure user’s RFID   Card number   via the TermMon ActiveX Control ?
 
Thanks!
Harry N.

Harry,

There are only two ways to associate a card with a TermSecure user.
1) You can set up a terminal with a card reader and ThinManager running (as a administrator). Have all the cards and scan them one at a time and associate the card with a pre-created TermSecure user.
Or you can scan a card and create the user on the spot. I think a replacement is quicker.
2) Get each card and record the user and the card number. Go into each TermSecure user configuration and add the badge number to the Card/Badge Information page.
-TM
______________________________

 

 

Recently at one of our sites, they noticed some odd behavior and we would like to know if this was the result of a known issue (they are currently at v4.0 SP3).

They have DeltaV Operate sessions for both their production and test environments available. One day they received complaints that users were connecting to the wrong sessions. Upon investigation, they found that users were connecting to TDVNPADELTAV01 even though they were requesting a DeltaVOperate display client (not a DeltaVOperate_Test client, which are restricted to significantly fewer termsecure users) . They double-checked that TDVNPADELTAV01 was not assigned as a DeltaVOperate display client, and eventually went as far as removing and adding the server and cycling the ThinManager service on both servers (they have failover). Since that time, all behavior appears to be normal.

Any thoughts on why this occurred? I have been assured that there were no deliberate configuration changes made by the site administrators, however, could that change be made accidentally? I also could not find anything of note in the event logs.

Any insight you could provide would be helpful.

Thanks and Regards,

Brad B.


No, this isn’t a known bug.  Are they using DNS? If so maybe the tables pointed to the wrong server for a while.
We do have the ability to send an email when a configuration changes and the ability to backup the configuration automatically.
See 9.3.1.7 Event Selection Page and 9.3.1.8 E-Mail or Windows Message Recipients Page in the http://www.thinmanager.com/technotes/01_Intro/Manual60/TM6_Chapter9_Configuration%20Wizards.pdf for emailing configuration changes.
This is for TM6 but it is unchanged from TM4.
See http://www.thinmanager.com/technotes/07_Features/ScheduleConfigurationBackups.pdf about automatically backing up the configuration.
-TM
_________________________
 

I’m designing a network topology where it will include some wireless devices. My provider is asking me about the bandwidth consumed by Thinmanager. I’m clear about using 100MB speed… but I’m not sure about how much consumes each Thin client…

Could you give me an approach for this data?

Jean C.


The bandwidth consumed by a RDP session depends greatly on what you’re running on it.  Higher resolution, color depth, and complexity will cause more bandwidth to be consumed.

A typical 64k color session will use between 20-30kbps and simple programs could use as little as 5kbps.  A 32M color session running an HMI or PowerPoint presentation will use between 50-150kbps.  Keep in mind, this is per session, not per client.

-TM

May 112012
 

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing Technical Support emails we have recently received.  Our hope is that this weekly feature will help to educate other ThinManager users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great Technical Support is an essential part of any software product, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

 
I was wondering where the configuration is stored for ThinManager(3.1)?  I need to make sure it is backed up to my tape backup system.
Thanks,
Danny C.
 

 

It is the ThinManager.db file located in the ThinManager installation directory.  You can also save a back up from ThinManager by going to Manager > Backup Configuration.

-TM

_______________________________________

 

I Installed ThinManager 6.0 from 4.0. Now it says it is running in demo mode, the license utility still shows the master license. What do I have to do to get this out of demo mode and back to normal? Thanks.
Regards,
Ross D.

 

Just go to our web site and re-activate the master license.  The install id changes at upgrade and you need to reactivate it with the new install id.

-TM

________________________________________

 

I have been running ThinManager on a single server for several weeks now without an issue. We finally got the secondary server configured and setup in ThinManager and have ThinManager auto-synchronizing across servers.  The thin clients seem to be working fine, and instant failover is also working well.
 
I do have one issue that I cannot figure out. While viewing the Display Server tree, If I click on the primary Terminal Server I am able to tab through and view User and Session data on that server.
 
If I then click on the secondary Terminal Server and try to do the same, I receive errors stating no information available and error gathering load information.  The small status indicator light slowly flashes green and red and as soon as I click on the primary Terminal Server the status light on the secondary Terminal Server turns green and remains green.  It seems to flash red only when polling information from server.
 
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Al G.
 
 

 

Check that you are using the same credentials for both terminal servers in ThinManager and those same credentials for the ThinServer service.  This also needs to be an account that has local administrator privileges.  If you’re doing that already you could look into your DCOM settings on both servers.  The second half of the PDF linked below deals with configuring DCOM.  You will need to have both the administrator account you are using and REMOTE LOGON set to allow both remote and local access.

http://thinmanager.com/technotes/13_Errors/XP_DCOM_Issues.pdf

-TM

_______________________________________________

 
May 092012
 

Here at ACP we often speak at great length about all of the amazing features ThinManager has to make your facility more secure and efficient.  But while perusing our blog archives, I realized that perhaps we have neglected explaining the basics and have placed the cart before the horse.   So I have decided to dedicate this week to explaining one of the most basic processes necessary to implementing ThinManager – setting up a ThinManager ready thin client.

Terminal Configuration Wizard

To connect a new terminal to your ThinServer, you must first set the basic configuration via DHCP or via a static IP.  Once the server and the terminal are communicating with each other, it is just a matter of clicking the appropriate selection boxes as you navigate the Terminal Configuration Wizard

When using the Wizard, the first screen opens onto the “Terminal Name” screen.  From there, you can input a terminal name and apply a group if needed.  There is also a box which, when checked, will allow the user to select settings from another terminal.   This is a very useful feature when implementing a large number of terminals or adding another terminal to a working group without having to manually input the same information numerous times.  Before moving to the next screen there is also an option to set permissions for the specific terminal to restrict user access to specific functions.

Terminal Options

From there, you continue to the Terminal Hardware Configuration screen.   This lists the hardware manufacturer, the specific thin client model, the chipset, and the terminal ID that was assigned via the specific thin client MAC address.  If you haven’t already entered the basic hardware profile onto your server before beginning the process, this information will be available via dropdown menus in each field.

I know it sounds too simple, but ThinManager was designed to be low maintenance so that our end users can spend less time configuring and more time manufacturing.  Once you have completed the Hardware Configuration, there is a simple series of options windows to customize and streamline your terminal.  The Terminal Options screen allows you to assign terminal scheduling (i.e. maintenance downtime or a sleep schedule), terminal effects and the option to designate specific terminals that can be replaced or shadowed by another thin client.

Hotkey Configuration

Other available user options will allow you to select the availability of display clients, as well as specific ThinManager functions such as TermSecure and MultiMonitor (*see links below).  There are also dropdown menus to allow the user to easily choose from a list of available display clients.  Additional check boxes allow the user to toggle display tiling and screen edge display selection which allows alternate sessions to be displayed by moving the mouse cursor to the edge of the active display area.

Lastly, the user is able to set hotkeys, select video resolution (including color depth and refresh rate), and the option to choose from an enormous selection of drivers and additional hardware options such as adding an RFID card reader for added security and accessibility.  And if you ever have a problem such as hardware failure or a complete facility shutdown, the process to replace existing terminals is even easier and does not require the user to manually configure replacement hardware as the hardware configuration is saved to the server.

It is the firm belief of ACP that if a product is simple to install and use, people will gravitate towards it because, in both business and our daily lives, time is the most precious of commodities and it should not be wasted thumbing through a giant manual.  The difference between a useful product and an efficiently crafted useful product is an obvious consideration for the valuable time and energy of the people who will use it.  Once you use ThinManager you will see the difference, and maybe even have some more free time to take care of the things ThinManager doesn’t manage.  Then again, trying to find something ThinManager doesn’t manage could take a long time.

 

*To learn more about TermSecure and MultiMonitor visit:

http://blogs.thinmanager.com/thinclients/?p=426

http://www.thinmanager.com/products/multimonitor.php