Comments on: DDH Releases Remote Desktop Client

Mobile TS is a new RDP terminal server client from DDH Software, Inc. It allows users to access and use their windows desktop computer or server remotely. Mobile TS allows for faster screen updates even on slower wireless connections, and supports secure connections.

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Wow, finally

I.M Anonymous @ 11/6/2003 12:57:38 PM #

This is honestly the one piece of software I've been waiting for. The price is a little steep, however.

RE: Wow, finally

I.M Anonymous @ 11/6/2003 1:27:17 PM #

Actually, it is pretty buggy and slow on my T|E, even using a 115k USB connection throgh softick. I had hoped it would be usable.

RE: Wow, finally

dhaupert @ 11/7/2003 1:16:47 PM #

If you have found any bugs, please report them to us ASAP. We're working to fix anything we receive quickly. So far, there have been few reports of problems, so your information is even that much more vital!

Thanks,
Dave Haupert
dhaupert@ddhsoftware.com

Dang this is cool!

snugglefart @ 11/6/2003 1:10:54 PM #

Doin' the remote thing from my T3 onto this website via wireless connection to my PC....

wayyyyyyy coooooll

RE: Dang this is cool!

Shotokan @ 11/6/2003 4:04:50 PM #

I am using my T3 to connect to corporate through a modem. I can log into the system. Yet, when try to connect to one of the servers that I currently Terminal services into, it is just locking up. I can do this find with may laptop. Also Does this software handle the T3 landscape mode.

RE: Dang this is cool!

edevoe @ 11/6/2003 9:18:33 PM #

I've been waiting for this one for a long time. $40 seems reasonable considering what it provides for me. Kiss the laptop goodbye!

However, I can't seem to get any res other than 320x320 to work on my T3. Any other virtual desktop size results in the same error: Starter.c,Line:388,object not found

fix this and I will pay twice the price!

"Despite the high cost of living, it remains popular..."

VNC has been doing this for a long time.

arnstein @ 11/6/2003 1:54:00 PM #

VNC is a terrific system that provides remote access for combinations of Windows and X11 machines. It is a very elegant collection of software. There is at least one PalmOS client available:
http://palmvnc2.free.fr/
It is shareware.

Check google for other VNC ports too.

RE: VNC has been doing this for a long time.

dazz @ 11/6/2003 3:29:10 PM #

I suggest you try both Mobile TS and a VNC client and compare both useability and speed. I think you will like how Mobile TS performs.

Darren
DDH Software, Inc.

RE: VNC has been doing this for a long time.

just_little_me @ 11/6/2003 3:59:24 PM #

It may work well, but AFAIC the cost is excessive for most peoples needs. For me I use PalmVNC with my TC to get to our machines. It's performance is great - I basically don't see anything that a $40 product provides that I can't get for a lot less. PalmVNC also lets me get to some of our machines that don't run Windows.

JLM.

RE: VNC has been doing this for a long time.

chilimost @ 11/6/2003 4:55:31 PM #

The one thing about VNC though is it's lack of any security other than the initial password. This is a huge advantage to RDP.

I use both PalmVNC and the demo of the DDH client. For some reason, the DDH client is fast connecting to my home XP pro system, but is *dog* slow connecting to Win2k terminal servers I use elsewhere. The network connection is the same speed in both locations (both using T|C w/ wifi).

RE: VNC has been doing this for a long time.

cbowers @ 11/6/2003 6:31:29 PM #

Perhaps but encryption can be added to VNC, internally or externally. There are builds of VNC that encrypt the stream (not useful to our current PalmVNC clients however). But it works fine, wrapped in a VPN tunnel, on the Tungsten C.

The cross-platform ability is what's always kept me to VNC.

RE: VNC has been doing this for a long time.

MV-Jon @ 11/6/2003 9:26:33 PM #

I am not all that up on terminal servers vs VNC, but if I recall RDP is supposed to be much faster because of the way it sends the "image" from the remote host. VNC is basically piping over a big gif/jpg image which is why it can sometimes get choppy if you have something on the remote host with a lot of motion.

Can anyone post some screenshots of this app connected to their host? I want to see how things scale/don't scale :)

Jon Niola
President/CEO
Media Vortex, Inc.

RE: VNC has been doing this for a long time.

icy jamie @ 11/7/2003 3:09:09 AM #

Consider also the cost that may be needed to upgrade from XP Home to XP Professional (yes, there are still "Home" users too)

James

RE: VNC has been doing this for a long time.

rowlandcutler @ 11/7/2003 7:42:55 AM #

With VNC the server on the desktop machines can have increased security.
We have a dialogue box pop up asking if we can connect to our user stations, and with TCP/IP security (Firewall with dedicated MAC Address/IP address restrictions), this makes it even more secure.
I have yet to try out Mobile TS, but for conveience I'll still use VNC and PalmVNC.

RE: VNC has been doing this for a long time.

chilimost @ 11/7/2003 8:40:57 AM #

Even with firewalling or access control to the VNC server enabled, the data passing through (other than the initial password) is still completely unencrypted. This is not really secure. I do realize that you can encrypt VNC sessions via various methods (and regulalry do this with other platforms), but since we are comparing the PalmVNC app to the TS/RDP Palm app, we cannot use this argument. Unfortunately, none of those encryption methods can be used in this case. Don't get me wrong, I use PalmVNC all the time, it is a great app. I think this new TS/RDP app is a great addition also, with some benefits that PalmVNC just doesn't have (yet?)...as well as some features missing that PalmVNC does have now.

RE: VNC has been doing this for a long time.

dhaupert @ 11/7/2003 12:53:01 PM #

Thanks for your comments on our new product! I have used VNC in the past as well, and it was using VNC on my desktop and then switching to Remote Desktop and seeing the speed interest that got me really interested in writing a Palm version. I'd been connecting from my desktop at home to my desktop at the office using VNC to access my email program (and keep all correspondence in the same place) and accessing the network drives. While it worked, even over DSL->T1 it was certainly not as good as being there. When I started using Remote Desktop (Windows XP Pro's version of Terminal Services) I was not only amazed by the speed, but the experience was so 'real' that I often forgot I was connected to my PC at work. It actually confused me many times, and to this day my wife sometimes slips into my home office, goes on the web, loads up a site, prints it out on our home PC, and never realizes that she just went through my office PC!

Anyway, VNC is fundamentally very different than RDP. Basically VNC captures the screen of your server desktop and sends it to the client desktop. Any keystrokes you type or mouse movements get sent back to the server. RDP acts quite different- when the server sends the initial screen to the client, it actually sends a bunch of different types of drawing primitives. For example, instead of sending a big image of your desktop screen, it will send us a font cache (a cache of images for fonts used for the various applications running). This means that to show a page of text, it only needs to send the text and a pointer to which font to use. We do all the work of displaying the screen and fonts, but there is so much less to transfer over the internet. Additionally, bitmaps are cached so when you move things around the screen there is no need to resend the images. This is much harder to program for, and much more elaborate, but the proof is in the pudding, since your experience is that much faster and more usable, even using a Treo 600 with a cellular connection.

The RDP protocl (and hence Mobile TS) has other advantages as well- encryption being a big one. Everything being sent back and forth is encrypted via SSL. Another huge one that none of the other popular protocols support is virtual desktop size. What this means is that when you connect to a server, you can specify the desktop size. All of the apps will scale to the size you specify. So for example, running on a Sony UX50 at 480x320, you can (in Mobile TS) specify a desktop size of 480x320 and it will appear that Windows is running on your handheld- all Windows apps will scale to that screen, and you'll see no Palm scroll bars (just those that are part of windows). This is a huge difference in usability. I have found that on the UX50, despite the good browser included, IE through Remote Desktop runs even better (and of course supports everything IE does)

Other RDP advantages (that we have not implemented YET in Mobile TS) include sound redirection (when you connect via Remote Desktop on your PC, you can hear any sounds from the server side as they are routed through your client side speakers), and drive redirection (where your client side drives show up as available drives on the server, and you can copy files, load and save as though they were the same computer). This would be particularly useful on the Palm, as we could eventually make it possible to mount the external memory card drive as a drive on the computer you connect to, and you could transfer and move data back and forth to your desktop without syncing. We are planning on implementing these features once we establish that there is enough interest in the product and in adding those features.

Last but not least, we support our products with phone support techs available 8 hours a day, and with fast turnaround (typically 2 hours) email support. To a corporation rolling these solutions out to many handhelds simultaneously, this is a big selling point over many of the competitors, yet costly for us to provide.

I hope you can see that there is much more to Mobile TS, than just being a more expensive alternative to the shareware solutions out their in the market already!

Please contact me with any questions or comments.

Thanks,
Dave Haupert
dhaupert@ddhsoftware.com

Supports New T3s

bmari20007 @ 11/7/2003 11:34:41 AM #

according to this link: http://www.ddhsoftware.com/images/mobilets_ssystem/Website_7.jpg

This is definitely the one thing that (I thought) Palm didn't have on PocketPC.

But PalmVNC apparently seems like a great alternative--it also supports T3 screens.

I can't wait for the SDIO WAN Cards to come out. I'll be in mobile gear heaven (w/ my iPod and a T3--sometime in the not to far off future I hope :( )

RE: Supports New T3s

bmari20007 @ 11/7/2003 11:37:11 AM #

http://www.ddhsoftware.com/mobile_ts_ssystem.html

sorry

:-p

Useful Without VPN?

Sjrixon @ 11/7/2003 2:16:48 PM #

This would be great.. BUT.. How can you connect to an office Terminal Server remotely without a VPN client? I don't know any company's who are going to put a TS server on the Internet..

Come on.. Let's have an OS5 VPN Client.. My T3 needs it..

Scott