Terminal services

Terminal Services

Terminal services is a server application that allows remote Windows based sessions to a Windows server.

Terminal services and DET

Access to terminal services from outside of the DET WAN is possible via the DET portal. Inside the WAN access is available via standard remote desktop protocol clients.

To enable access via the portal log a helpdesk call requesting terminal server access via the portal.

The connection process from outside the DET WAN is as follows:

1. Log on to Portal
2. On the My Applications tab you have a link to Somewhere High School Terminal Server. This link is set up by the Portal team. There is a Help item in Portal about this.
3. The first time a Windows browser attempts to connect, there is a message about installing an Active X (note that the Active X is NOT required by the F5 Firepass system but has been. put there by DET. It effectively excludes other operating systems. Firepass will happily work with a range of operating systems). You will need to be Administrator in a Vista system to install the Active X. If you have any sort of browser security that restricts Active X, this may be interfering with the connection)
4. After a few moments you get a window with the Terminal Server login screen. Firepass will attempt to use your DET Portal credentials to connect to your terminal server but unless your TS is on the DET domain, this will fail. You can suppress this action by configuring TS to "always use login details of blank".

DET portal terminal services issues

Mac OS X

• The portal application (the F5 Client) is an ActiveX control and so is Windows only
• The Firefox plugin for the F5 Client is just a wrapper around the ActiveX control, so it is Windows only too
• The F5 Firepass solution is cross-platform (the product datsheet states access from Windows (2000, ME, XP, Vista), Macintosh, Windows Mobile 5 and 6 pocket PC and smart phone) [1]

Summary - Mac OS X terminal server access is not possible via the DET portal due to implementation decisions made by NSWDET.

Windows Vista

• The F5 client only works if you're an administrator
• The F5 client *should* work if you've installed it as an administrator but run it as an ordinary user. But it doesn't.
• In Vista, with User Account Control, administrators aren't administrators, so the F5 client doesn't work ordinarily
• So you need to run an administrative instance of a browser (either IE or Firefox) - right click the browser shortcut and select 'Run as Administrator', click OK at the UAC prompt.

Summary - I can get the F5 client running on Vista (Ultimate, but there's no difference between the versions of Vista is this regard).

Obtaining terminal services client access license

Each client requires a CAL (client access license) to connect to Windows terminal service. Phone DET software services to obtain required client access licenses.

Configuring Terminal Services for the DET Portal

This is how you can set the screen size to be other than what is set on the Portal link (eg the laptop is a different geometry to the desktop machine)

1. Connect to the TS through Portal as normal
2. Copy the link info at the top of the F5 browser window once connected
3. Make a Favourite and copy the link from above
4. Edit the link to give the screen resolution required.

When you want to connect, click on the Portal link, then when the remote TS screen appears (and presumably the security software has loaded) close the F5 window and go to the Favourite set up above.

Using the F5 FirePass interface to access Terminal Services for the DET Portal

Similar to the above instructions, it is possible to access the F5 FirePass configuration page at https://portalsrvs.det.nsw.edu.au/vdesk/

It is still necessary to first make a connection with the Terminal Server link to load the software, however it is then possible to access (any) shared screen service such as Microsoft Terminal Services, Citrix Metaframe and VNC by configuring the web options on this page. Unfortunately, it does not seem possible to save the preferences that have been created in this way.

The main options are screen size (including full screen), colour bit depth and drive mapping suppression.

Using the F5 FirePass Java client to access Terminal Services for the DET Portal

Some people have managed to provide access to the school terminal server through the F5 Java client. Using the above instructions to connect to the F5 FirePass configuration page as an authenticated session, then click on the Java client option. In general a launch page is used to pass the required information to the F5 appliance.