Thin Client Questions...

[kb0nly]

I see a lot of mention of using Thin Clients for streaming, and a couple questions keep coming to mind...

If you setup the thin client and then remove the monitor, keyboard, mouse from it and leave it running with say UltraVNC installed and power is lost how do you login remotely since it has to boot up and load UltraVNC before you can control it again?? Every demo and install tutorial i can find on the net shows how to control it once its running but makes no mention of what to do in this case. Do you set it for automatic login in the XPe so that it goes straight to desktop at boot? Every thin client i have looked at requires login at boot but i know you can bypass that on regular XP so i assume the same for XPe, not having any experience with it unfortunately.

What is the BARE minimum to run one instance of Proscan? I know you need .net installed for Proscan, so i would assume that its going to be a bit of a memory issue. At least a 512mb flash or can it be crammed into a 256mb flash? Plenty of T5000 series clients on ebay but almost all of them except for the expensive ones are 256mb of flash.

Also is there anyone out there running two instances of Proscan on one of these thin clients?? If so how well does it handle it and how much flash memory did you need to accomplish this? I would like to take some load off my dedicated shack PC by moving the scanner feeds to a thin client, but it would be nice if i could run both feeds with one. Currently i run two instances of Proscan to allow feeding tags with my bc796d and bc785d, if i had a newer scanner i could use the RR edition of Scannercast to stream tags but i won't be upgrading the scanners, no plans for it ever so Proscan is needed.

The current PC is just getting too busy with all it handles..

UI-View for APRS Igate/digi
Weather Display for weather to internet
Yawcam for weather webcam to website and internet
Proscan x2 for both RR feeds

If nothing else it would be nice to eliminate the fulltime PC all together and run 2-3 thin clients for all this, as i know one could easily handle the UI-View and Weather, Yawcam might be a stretch for a thin client though due to it using Java and being a bit resource heavy.

Chime in with some hints and tips guys!

 

[cg]

I run a thin client for a private feed/control to a remote 996XT with ProScan on a HP 5720 Thin Client. Because I needed to use ProScan, I had to upgrade the unit to 1GB/1GB to get the .NET to load. I am not saying it can't be done on less, it is just that I couldn't get it loaded on the 512/512.
I have the computer restart ProScan upon power on. Since ProScan remembers the last state of the IP feed, it restarts that automatically. I use Remote Desktop Connection to restart ProScan if it does fail to restart.
The biggest problem I have it that ProScan seems to just shut off the feed on a regular but unpredictable basis. If the client would automatically reconnect, that would go a long way toward a more reliable setup. Sometimes the ProScan server on my remote computer closes by itself. I then have to use Remote Desktop to restart it. It may well be my connection but ProScan could help with a reconnect feature.

As for using two copies of ProScan, I have not tried it on the Thin Client.

Another issue has been hackers. Since my remote is on someone elses network, I can't just ignore the Chinese and Saudis who kept accessing the open port. Now I have changed the port number and limited the access to only my IP address and if it changes, it means a trip to the remote site.

I also run the no-ip software to keep my access in case the remote IP changes.

chris

 

[kb0nly]

Hmm ok... Mine would be on my local LAN and i never have any of those Proscan problems you have, so i'm guessing it is indeed your connection. As a matter of fact my ISP dumps all the modems in town to resync their IP lease between midnight and one am. As soon as the modem resync's Proscan connects right up and keeps going all on its own.

Did you check the box for auto reconnect (10 sec) on the scannercast tab? I missed that and then i had the same problem one morning, got up and feeds were down.

I hope it doesn't NEED 1gb for .NET to load, that would be cost prohibitive. The modules for these thin clients cost more than the whole unit itself.

 

[SignalSeeker]

On my thin client it has a 512meg drive. I turned off the hard drive locking and set it to auto login to the admin account. I had to clone it over to an old laptop hard drive. Installed all the .Net stuff. Then installed ScannerCast. Cleaned it out so it was about 450megs and cloned it back.

256 would be very hard to work with.

Justin

 

[Seadoo]

Set yourself up a ipcop firewall and keep your thinclient the way it is, connect the ipcop to your friends network and connect the thinclient to the ipcop. Set up open vpn on the ipcop and also set up dynamic dns within ipcop. you now have a secure remote connection to your thin client and dont have to worry about a hacker accessing your thin client.

 

[PeterGV]

<QUOTE>
If you setup the thin client and then remove the monitor, keyboard, mouse from it and leave it running with say UltraVNC installed and power is lost how do you login remotely since it has to boot up and load UltraVNC before you can control it again??
</QUOTE>

I have several thin clients, T5720's with 512/512 -- One supplies my feed to RR (with ScannerCast, naturally). This is PLENTY (of disk and memory) to install and run .Net 2.0. I use Windows remote desktop to talk to them... no need to install VNC in my case.

It's easy to set the thin client to auto login on boot, which is what I do. You can also set it up to auto power-on at boot. So... power fails, system just restarts and logs in!

I leave the Read-Only lock on the disk ON, and run as user. This makes for a TERRIFIC configuration. No spyware, no viruses, no worries.

Peter
K1PGV

 

[kb0nly]

On my thin client it has a 512meg drive. I turned off the hard drive locking and set it to auto login to the admin account. I had to clone it over to an old laptop hard drive. Installed all the .Net stuff. Then installed ScannerCast. Cleaned it out so it was about 450megs and cloned it back.

256 would be very hard to work with.

Justin

Ok, interesting. So you cloned the flash memory over to a hard drive, connected the hard drive to the client, then did the installs using the client, and then cloned back to the flash memory and away you went?

I could do that, i have a drive and a 44 pin cable i use for fixing hard drives all the time. The other thing i thought about doing was taking the memory module from the client and replacing it with an ATA to Compact Flash adapter, cabled together with a short 44 pin cable and then i could use whatever size i wanted. 1gb Compact Flash is cheap these days, less than $10, and the adapter and cable would be another $5. For $15 i could get 1gb of flash storage in the client. Not sure if XPe would allow me to partition it correctly but i figure i could hook it up, install the image from HP, then remove it and connect to another computer and expand the partition or even create a second partition for additional storage using one of the many available partitioning tools.

 

[SCPD]

...
I leave the Read-Only lock on the disk ON, and run as user. This makes for a TERRIFIC configuration. No spyware, no viruses, no worries. ...

Is this like a normal hard-drive or special? I've never heard of a Read-Only hard disk.

 

[kb0nly]

<QUOTE>
If you setup the thin client and then remove the monitor, keyboard, mouse from it and leave it running with say UltraVNC installed and power is lost how do you login remotely since it has to boot up and load UltraVNC before you can control it again??
</QUOTE>

I have several thin clients, T5720's with 512/512 -- One supplies my feed to RR (with ScannerCast, naturally). This is PLENTY (of disk and memory) to install and run .Net 2.0. I use Windows remote desktop to talk to them... no need to install VNC in my case.

It's easy to set the thin client to auto login on boot, which is what I do. You can also set it up to auto power-on at boot. So... power fails, system just restarts and logs in!

I leave the Read-Only lock on the disk ON, and run as user. This makes for a TERRIFIC configuration. No spyware, no viruses, no worries.

Peter
K1PGV

Awesome! Thanks for the info Peter. I think i might have to get one of these and give it a shot. Could take the load of the scanner feeds off the full time computer. Plus it looks like these Thin Client's run off 12v so it would be able to run off the shack supply and later solar/battery when i get that far.

 

[kb0nly]

Is this like a normal hard-drive or special? I've never heard of a Read-Only hard disk.

They use a flash memory module for a hard drive, so its not really a hard drive. They have write protection that gets turned on so that everything is stored in RAM, when you power it off and back on its like back to new and everything that was done or changes made is lost. So no viruses can get in, etc.

 

[PeterGV]

Plus it looks like these Thin Client's run off 12v...

The power brick for my t5720 says (most things in Chinese but also) 12V, 3.33A

Peter
K1PGV

 

[cg]

I have my 996XT and the thin client running off the computer power supply. I had put a KillAWatt energy use monitor on it and am using around 28 cents per month for the HP T5720 and the 996XT.

chris

 

[kb0nly]

The power brick for my t5720 says (most things in Chinese but also) 12V, 3.33A

Peter
K1PGV

Nice! That will make it a lot easier for backup power, it can run off the DC shack backup, no UPS needed.

 

[kb0nly]

I have my 996XT and the thin client running off the computer power supply. I had put a KillAWatt energy use monitor on it and am using around 28 cents per month for the HP T5720 and the 996XT.

chris

Now that is a nice savings... I'm spending about a $5 a month right now for the computer and power supply to run in the shack full time.

 

[Rob1956]

cg,
I'm using a Thin Client model t5000. Whenever I try to download streaming software or .net 2.0, I get a box saying it's not a Win32 application. My Client is at 256mb. Do you think going to 512 would fix the situation, or is there something else going on? I'm logged in as Administrator, and have been able to download Revo to find and get rid of all nonessential programs.
Thanks.

 

[wrenchmonkey]

<QUOTE>

I leave the Read-Only lock on the disk ON, and run as user. This makes for a TERRIFIC configuration. No spyware, no viruses, no worries.

Peter
K1PGV

How do you run Scannercast in the User account? I can only get it to work in the Administrator account. I'm new with XPe, what am I missing here?

 

[PeterGV]

How do you run Scannercast in the User account? I can only get it to work in the Administrator account. I'm new with XPe, what am I missing here?

I don't know... but, to quote a famous phrase, "it works for me"!

I wish I could be more helpful, but I never had a problem. I've got ScannerCast running this way on two t5710's...

Peter
K1PGV