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Is there a way to add Terminal Services CAL's in Windows SBS 2003? Microsoft's website and Google seem to be fuzzy for me onj the subject. Some places claim to sell them and so forth, and Microsoft has information about using TS CAL's on their site and adding the CAL's and so forth. But, I could not find pricing. I then found a part of an FAQ on MS website that basically says that SBS 2003 does not support Terminal Services except TS for Administration (max 2 connections). Security issues are to blame.

Paul, I'm not sure about this, but I was told we needed Server Standard to run terminal services. I think you're stuck with that, unless you use VNC, or maybe Citrix is an option.

I keep reading and the more reading I do I am discovering that working remotely wasn't really supposed to be a feature of SBS 2003. Hmmm, thinking of options.

If the clinic has a static IP and Pro/Business pcs you could set up port forwarding to the doctors office pc. With RDP turned on they can log into their account remotely. The only things are, there is a registry setting to turn off remotely logging in as admin, and RDP is insecure (not Terminal Services, Microsoft added encryption for SBS). It works for my home PC.

I am confused. I would say it is just the opposite. I don't know of any other Microsoft server option that is intended more for remote computing.

RWW allows one to access both the server and one's desktop as well as Outlook Web Access. The company web can be accessed directly. Furthermore, Outlook from home can be configured via RPC/HTTP so that your remote Outlook is connected to Exchange Server from your remote computer. If you do have an additional Terminal Server on the network running in Application Sharing Mode, then a link to this will be provided on the RWW home page.

RWW allows you to use Download Connection Manager. downloads sbspackage.exe to the computer accessing RWW. When you run this program it will automatically create a VPN connection object that the user can use to VPN into the SBS network.

Small Business Server 2003 makes remote computing easier and more secure than just about any other OS.

Bert, that sounds wonderful. The problem I am running into is that I can't have 5 simultaneous remote sessions for 5 different people. From what I read online there is not an option to add more TS CAL's so that I can have those simultaneous remote connections. Am I missing something?

Also - Ben, I understand what you are saying but our computers in the office are shared. That means that when these people are working from home someone else is still using that computer.

TS is not allowed on SBS. You would need Server 2008 plus TS cal licenses to make it work

Srini is correct. You cannot use SBS2003 as an application terminal server. However, you could use Win2k3 or 2k in a virtual machine. The better alternative for application terminal server would be to add Win2k or Win2003. The advantage with 2000 is XP Pro all come with TS license for 2000 but need separate licenses for Win2k3.

Two users can connect to the server in administrative mode at one time.

Now terminal services is completely different from RWW. The limit on RWW should be 75, the number of CALs one can purchase for SBS2003. The only limit one should have for remoting into your "network" not the server would be the number of CALS coupled with the number of computers. So 10 PCs with 10 CALs, you should be able to have 10 concurrent users into each person's respective computer. Or they could log into any PC, but if many were going to log in at one time, it would be best to stick to their own PC.

I see what you mean Bert. I think I am going to have to change the way I wanted to do it and start using RWW and having people log into their own machines rather than having a bunch of RDP sessions active. I have a copy of Server2k and will try that as well, in a VM most likely or on a separate machine if that gives me trouble.

Yeah, the problem with a 32-bit program, which I am assume you are using, you can only run 4GBs of RAM and only ~ 3.2 of that is "seen" by the OS. And, given that VMs love memory, that would be the only issue. Server 2K would probably give you a nice application TS with no license issues if using XP.

But, RWW is the way to go at least short term. Just the OWA itself is worth it.

I just don't understand how our people would use AC over RWW unless you connect to a server or workstation using RDP...

Edit - Oh my! I learned Server 2003 Standard along with a bunch of other stuff in college, but was never told about RWW being able to share applications! I just opened a huge can of worms and will likely have my head buried trying to see how all this works! Thanks Bert!

Yeah Bert, thanks, I didn't know much about that and had forgotten SBS could do that.

Keep me posted.

I was thinking 75 users could be using AC without the need to take up a host PC at the office. I see now that it's not the case.

I think you could with a separate server running 2000 or 2003 and Terminal Services. But that would be a lot of licenses for 2003. Free for 2000 but only with XP Pro licenses. Which would mean 75 which would mean you may as well run the RWW on them.

If you have 10 users and 10 PCs and SBS 2003 or 8 and you have RWW, 10 could use AC on their PCs.

I guess the real question would be what are you trying to accomplish? You certainly don't have a need for 75 people to access AC from home at the same time do you. You wouldn't even have that from work.

Plus, and I am thinking as I am typing, but if you ran AC on TS, you wouldn't be able to run more than one app of AC, would you? Very confusing.


You could always get a copy of Windows 2000 (the client OS). It has no licensing restrictions. Then build a extremely powerful client computer with 64 bit OS -- any even Linux (maybe -- don't know much about it). Then get VMWare and put in 64GBs of RAM with the 64 bit. You could then run Win 2K in 10 virtual machines or more and put AC on all of them. Just a thought. I would try it here, but I only have 32 bit.

Plus you would need to set up networking for RDP and port forwarding which isn't difficult, but it can take a little tweaking.

Just in case Mr. Gates is reading this. It may have licensing restrictions (I don't know) but you don't have to activate it.

Thanks for the information,Bert! I will post back when I get something worked out.

One caveat. I use RWW and RPC/HTTP (coolest thing in the world) and OWA and RDP, etc. but I am not expert at TS nor have I tried more than 70 connections at one time, lol.