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RE: Displaying windows applications on x-terminals


> -----Original Message-----
> From: cygwin-xfree-owner@sourceware.cygnus.com
> [mailto:cygwin-xfree-owner@sourceware.cygnus.com]On Behalf Of Michael
> Gibson
> Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2000 10:42 AM
> To: cygwin-xfree@sourceware.cygnus.com
> Subject: Displaying windows applications on x-terminals
>
>
> Is it possible to display windows programs which reside on a MS-Terminal
> Server on X-Terminals when Cygwin-xfree is installed on that MS-Terminal
> server?
> Or is Cygwin-xfree only intended to display X programs which are ported to
> windows with cygwin?

While you can start Xvnc/Xggi on a MS-Terminal Server (either NT 4.0 TSE 
or Win2000 Server), you still face the same problem: port binding. There 
can only be one "Xvnc :0" (bound to port 6000), one "Xvnc :1" (bound to 
port 6001), etc. To remedy this, you must either assign a display per 
NT user (or Anon00x user) and limit them to one session, or you must 
find a way to dynamically trigger an Xserver that uniquely assigns a port 
per  session. Likewise, with the lack of a functional xauth, you might 
also want to carefully consider running Xvnc/Xggi as "-ac" out of 
security concerns.

However, It should be possible to run a split Xserver model with 
Xvncviewer on a TSE machine triggering an inetd initiated native Xvnc 
server port on your host box. This would have the benefit of being 
completely OpenSource, but does have the overhead of the somewhat 
slower overhead of RFB.

If you're looking for a commercial equivalent, check out the Graphon 
GoBetween<>GoGlobal model. You run GoBetween on your TSE server 
farming out to your PCs - which in turn connect via Graphon 
proprietary "RapidX" (instead of RFB), to GoGlobal - the actual 
Xserver running virtually on your X11 host box. Visit: 
	http://www.graphon.com

Another alternative would be Citrix' Metaframe for Unix native ICA
environment. As it is rather new, you will probably want to talk to
a Citrix representative directly. Generally, however, Metaframe isn't
a cheap option. 
	http://www.citrix.com

The third commercial alternative might be SCO Tarantella:
	http://tarantella.sco.com

Any Xserver needs to bind to the listening port related to its screen.
By moving the Xserver off to your Unix host and using a thin-client
model to move the display across the wire, you can initiate sessions
dynamicall - keep X11 traffic local to the server in question - 
minimize LAN traffic - and do some rather interesting things with 
split network topologies without the needs for an overly complex 
proxy.

An OpenSource alternative would be ideal, but GraphOn's model is far
better than the messy full-Xserver option.

Hope this helps.

PS. Xvnc/Xggi XDMCP support really would make my day... Beer anyone? :)

- Ian C. Blenke <icblenke@2c2.com> <ian@blenke.com> http://ian.blenke.com

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