Question about using "dumb terminals" for multiple access points

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Question about using "dumb terminals" for multiple access points

For both home and a small busniess setting I have been trying to find info about the possibility of using some form of dumb terminal to provide multimple acces points to a single computer rather than a network of multiple computers.

I would like to use my LCD TVs, (which have AV and PC inputs) as monitors. I am going to purchase a new mac soon, and it seems it would make sense to spend more on 1 mac with more capability rather than 5 mac-minis (yes, I am trying to have 5 access points, with one one mac).

I have CAT5 running to all the locations I want to use, I also have airport.

For the most part I'm expecting only one user at a time, but occasional two. OS X is multi user, but can it support simultaneous users?

I have searched the discussions/forums and some google searching. Maybe I'm asking the wrong questions. But, I can't imagine that I am the only person who has thought of this.

If you have any thoughts or suggesting for further searching I would appreciate it. Thanks

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Apr 2, 2006 7:03 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 3, 2006 7:22 AM in response to Mark Edevold

On each of these 'dumb terminals' I assume you are looking to access the complete Mac desktop from the central Mac?

Unfortunately, this can't be done.

In the past, the setup you describe first was used on mainframes where each end node was a dumb terminal. But it was just text.

Next came X11 which does mostly what you are asking about, but each end node is basically a full computer in itself. You can remotely log into a central server and get a complete desktop session. This would take using a central computer that is running full X-Windows and then you'd need a PC running Linux, or running Windows and a X-Terminal package like Exceed or a Mac with X11 installed (not sure if you can make the Mac X11 do a full-blown desktop X session.) Note that as the central server, you'd need a computer running an OS with full-blown X-Windows (Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, etc.) -- OS X is UNIX but it doesn't run full X-Windows as its window manager.

Finally, there is what are called 'thin clients' ... a good example is Sun Microsystems' SunRay... it's enough hardware on the client side to provide display, keyboard and mouse. They boot off a central Sun Solaris server and work just like X-Windows clients. The difference here is that the SunRay unit can't work on its own; it has no disk, and has to boot from the SunRay server.

And of course there's Windows Terminal Services, which lets you do the same thing with Windows. I think that takes Windows Server edition software on the central computer, and then a regular PC as a client.

Sounds like your only option is to use Mac minis as you suggest. But then there's no need for a central computer to share, obviously.

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Answer 2

Mark Edevold Author

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Apr 3, 2006 9:13 AM in response to Rob Klingsten

Rob,
Thanks for the response, you gave the answer I was expecting being I couldn't find any information. I really appreciate the time you took giving a clear response.

It seems like there might be a business opportunity here. Maybe boxes that allow USB and video connections over CAT5, so you could switch between locations. It's a thought, anyway.
Thanks Again

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