Category Archives: TechSupport

Alternative RDP client for Mac

We’re looking for a replacement for the Mac RDP client.  We have one client whose clock is off no matter what in Outlook.  Using a Windows PC is not an option for various reasons.  Using parallels isn’t really an option.  This was tried and it created more calls for us than using something more native to OS X.  This user is on an x86 Macbook Pro laptop.  She has limited technical skills.  We are trying to make her life easier and simplify the process for her to connect to the terminal server farm where all of their data lives.  RDP6 for Mac (Remote Desktop Connection 2) is the best solution we have so far, but it still sometimes has issues with the timezone for her.  Lastly, using Entourage 2004/2008 or Mail is also not an option – the business owner does not want any local data to reside on any PC due to security concerns.

What we want to do is run the Windows binary of RDP5 or RDP6 on a Mac or more easily run the Linux rdesktop command with a GUI wraper.  I run this tool frequently from the command line or the GUI wrapper in Ubuntu or other distros and it works great.

Can someone with an Intel Mac try this:  http://desktopecho.com/iMKS/ and let me know how easy it is to setup and use?  It replaces TSClientX, an opensource GUI wrapper of the opensource RDP client.  TSClientX was awesome – a GUI wrapper to rdesktop.  Unfortunately it isn’t supported in 10.5 and the 10.5.5 or 10.5.4 update broke it (changes to the x11 environment I believe).  We want to see how easy it is to setup and use RDP, either the Linux tool or the Windows binary for RDP5 or RDP6.

The other thing we’d like to try is WINE:  http://wiki.winehq.org/MacOSX with a walkthrough here:  http://davidbaumgold.com/tutorials/wine-mac/.

The last time I looked, the Windows RDP5 binary worked.  RDP6 was not.  This may have changed as that was six months ago.

We have tried CoRD – http://cord.sourceforge.net/ – but it feels slower than Microsoft’s RDP method or rdesktop.

Backing up a small business, Help wanted

Does anybody have any thoughts on how to successfully backup a growing small business? We have a total of about 100GB that we currently backup on a daily basis to an external 2.5″HD (very portable). The amount of backup storage we need is increasing at a slow but steady rate, so that we will be exceeding it within a few weeks. When we do, I have to manually archive files on the client computers to reduce the amount of data that gets backed up. This is very time consuming and defeats the purpose of the automated task idea. In addition, there is only one backup set. The data gets overwritten/added on to on a daily basis. FYI, we run Dantz Retrospect to pull the files from 5 clients and one server (all OS X).

So here are the two goals we are trying to achieve:
1) Increased backup security by going to 2 or more sets (Right now there is only one medium, and once that gets overwritten or if it should ever break, there is no other backup layer)
2) Increased storage capacity to allow for future growth (Right now we have to either manually archive or buy a bigger HD each time we exceed our current GB limit)

Any thoughts on the subject are greatly appreciated. Thanks, Tim.

iChat video chat kaput in OS X 10.4.4

All Mac Users got really excited when Apple introduced the encrypted iChats under OS X 10.4.4. Turns out, video chats are not too excited about this feature. Actually, they don’t even work at all – at least from what Grant and I can tell. Please note, this only occurs when being used between encrypted parties (on .Mac for example). Turn the security feature off (and restart the app, is this Windows or what?) and voilà, video chats are online again. Just in case you cared… Happy Unsecure Video Chats!

Updating Server with new HDs

So after yesterday’s discussion I am trying to do a little bit of research on where to find affordable but realiable server harddrives. Does anybody have a suggestion? I am probably looking at a pair of 250s or so – size is not as much of an issue as reliablility. And then there is the whole issue of how to make the swap. Can it be as easy as installing the drives, setting up the mirror raid, and copying all the files? Continue reading Updating Server with new HDs