RDP in SharePoint

My school has been given 104 laptops for pupils to have.  This has brought up many issues.  The pupils have to be able to take the laptops home and use them there.

This has brought up several issues, Group Policies for the user, not enough IPs in my allocated range for the government WAN, wireless infrastructure etc.

The schools users and PCs are locked down so pupils can’t install anything – done through GPOs.

If you give pupils the laptop with the restrictions that are currently there they will not be able to add the laptop to the internet at home – do I give them permission to access the network properties, opening to all sorts of hacking!!?!

So what I have come up with is to give the pupils access through the MOSS site to a terminal services server.  This allowing them access to all the programs and resources as if they were sat in front a computer in one of the IT suites.  This then means the user can use their laptop as if it was a standalone.  Allowing them to install what they want.

I’ve always strongly thought that the harder the lock down of the PC the more the hardware gets damaged.  As long as they can’t access each other documents or break the network than thats fine – pupils can set their own desktop, customize the look, making them think they have control.

So how have I got a curriculum PC from my IT Suites being access from my MOSS site.

Well its all through Terminal Server licenses, Windows 2003 Server, Remote Desktop Web Connection and ISA 2006.

Install your Windows 2003 Server (high spec server – lots of RAM) and install it as if it was PC in your IT Suite computer.  Install terminal server licenses so many users can use the server at one time.  The server by default has 2 open connections.  To get more you have to buy terminal server licenses.

On this server you need to add Remote Desktop Web Connections which is a component in Add/Remove Components. You will also need to enable IIS.

This will add the the web folder to the default server.  You will be able to access the RDP Web by going to http://%server%/tsweb.  This will load the default site.

Customize default.htm so you get the look you want. This is located in C:WINDOWSweb sweb

With in the file serach for “serverName = trim(serverName)” , delete trim(serverName) and add the server name you have just built.  you may need to put your server name within in ” ”

When you click on Connect now you will see that no matter what you put in the promt box it will connect to the server you added in the default.htm.

Contact me if you want a copy of my of default.htm

So now when you got to http://%server%/tsweb and click on connect it will go to the server you want it to.

Add the rule to your ISA so when you got to the MOSS site through your ISA with the /tsweb it loads the RDP Web Connection.

Now create a new site in MOSS. Add the Page Vewier Web Part and put in /tsweb. RDP Web Connection should now load in your MOSS site.

To make it external – create a normal A host record record for your RDP to point to your Firewall/ISA. RDP/Terminal Services runs on port 3389 so forward that to your terminal services server.   Dont forget to change the servername in the default.htm to the new external address. Also dont forget to make the TSWeb available through the firewall as well.

Things to look out for

• Depending on the spec of the server depends on the number users can use terminal services server.  Add new servers, load balance them or create a different MOSS site per year group and only allow that year group to access that site and that terminal services server.
• If you only want it to work internally, only add a internal address to the default.htm

Login Box

Microsoft Word

A careers program