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Windows XP Pro and Windows Server 2000 and 2003 both
provide Windows Terminal services, more often called Remote
Desktop Protocol (RDP), or Remote Desktop Sessions
This system
lets all your networked PCs run a Remote Desktop session (which is
actually running all of the programs you see running on the
"server" machine), and all you actually see is an
updated screen showing what the server is running for you.
Windows XP Pro -v- Windows
"Servers"
Windows XP Pro can provide Remote
Desktop Sessions in the same way as the Windows 2000 and 2003
servers do. However, there are some important differences in
the way these work, and therefore the NetCFax Client needs to be configured and
used differently for each of these "RDP" environments.
Under Windows XP Pro, the fax
clients can use the normal NetCPlus Fax Client Printer in the same
way as any other client does, but to do so, NetCFax must be
running, but it does not need to be logged into the fax server.
Also under Windows XP Pro,
if networked machines are connecting to the XP machine and logging
in with RDP sessions, the XP machine itself cannot be used to
handle multiple sessions as each RDP session will force any other login account open on the
XP Pro machine to be closed down. This does not necessarily need to
be an issue however, as you can for example have the NetCFax
server running in the login account that will be
"closed", but the Fax Server will continue to run and be
available to all fax clients under that account, in exactly the
same way as when FTS is used to switch users when working on the
XP Pro machine itself.
However, when running the NetCFax
Client under an RDP
session on a Windows "Servers" you must install the
special NetCFax Remote Desktop Printer (on the "Server"
system), as fax clients running under RDP sessions on these
systems cannot use the normal NetCFax Client Printer due to the
way that RDP sessions are hosted by the "Server"
systems, and as a bonus due to this, the fax client does not need to be running to
create faxable data by printing it to the special Remote Desktop
Printer in
this environment.
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE -
If you are running the NetCFax server on the Windows server
machine itself, you CANNOT also run the fax client on this same
machine if the client is going to be accessed via RDP sessions.
You can
however install a fax client on a Windows Server machine that is
not also running the Fax Server, and then
have the client accessed and run by multiple users, each running a copy of the fax
client in their own RDP session. In
other words, you can chose to install the NetCFax server ALONE or
the NetCFax Client ALONE on a Windows Server machine, but if you
install both, they cannot be run in that environment at one and
the same time. If you are running the fax server
on a Windows Server machine it can be run directly on the machine
or under under an RDP session.
TO
START THE FAX SERVER AS A DESKTOP APPLICATION YOU ALSO NEED TO ALWAYS USE THE SAME
WINDOWS LOGIN ACCOUNT THAT WAS USED TO INSTALL THE FAX SERVER IN
THE FIRST PLACE. If
you start the fax server UNDER AN RDP SESSION it will be
accessible across your network in the normal way, even if you
subsequently log out of that RDP session, as all running programs
continue to run in a closed RDP session.
POSSIBLE FAX CLIENT ISSUES Although
there are very few limitations that are needed when the fax client
is being used by multiple users in their own RDP sessions, the
design and implementation of RDP by Microsoft lacks some important
support features. The one that can effect the fax clients is
when it uses the built in UDP server to attempts to identify all of the
NetCFax servers on your local network. You may find that although
there are one or more NetCFax Servers on the network, none appear
in the client's list when a scan is performed. This is
because the system works by listening for UDP broadcasts that are
sent out by the fax server every 5 seconds, but as there is only a
single IP address and single set of TCP/UDP Ports on a Windows
Server, the clients are almost sure not to receive the UDP
broadcasts. This is a Windows Server design problem, and
there is nothing
we are able to do to correct this, so you may have to enter the IP
address and port of your NetCFax Server manually before you are
able to connect to it with the RDP clients.
A secondary problem is also
caused by running the NetCFax client
in an RDP environment, and that is connected to the Fax CLIENT
printer driver that is used to create faxable data. If you are
running an instance of a fax client that is installed on a W23K
server WHEN USING THE CONSOLE ON THAT MACHINE ITSELF then you can
use the standard Fax client printer as normal.
However, if you are running any
instances of a NetCFax client that is
installed on a W23K server under an RDP session, you CANNOT use
the standard NetCFax Client Printer.
If you do so the request for a name for the faxable file created
will not appear on your console, it will appear on the CONSOLE OF
THE MACHINE ITSELF. In this scenario, you MUST install and use the
special NetCFax Remote Printer driver
we have provided when creating faxable data under an RDP session.
All of the files required to do so are in the \PRINTERDRIVER
subfolder of the NetCFax client
install tree, together with detailed instructions how to do this.
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NETCFAX -
Networked fax system