Citrix WinFrame 1.6 Beta

If you've used computers for any time, you've probably accessed another computer remotely, either by phone or by a network connection. In the beginning, the programs that made this capability possible were simple terminal-emulation programs that supported basic character displays.

Later, terminal programs let you use emulation, such as VT-100, VT-220, and Tektronix emulation, to display some rudimentary graphics. As GUIs began to gain market share, simple terminal programs were no longer adequate. Computer users wanted the same slick GUI and all its amenities, whether they ran programs locally or remotely. The UNIX community addressed this issue with the X Window System.

In the Windows and DOS markets, programs such as pcANYWHERE let you run native applications remotely. The programs executed on the remote machine--the host--and the results were piped to your machine--the client. These second-generation programs were slow and offered access to only one user at a time.

The multi-user problem had many interesting solutions. One vendor offered a PC full of cards that were individual computers--one computer for each user. Multiprocessor computers are commonplace now, but then they were quite a novelty. Specialized software gave each user access to his or her own virtual computer. The problem was that every time a screen changed, the host computer had to send all the information to the client computer. (Generally, the link wasn't too fast to begin with.) All this traffic caused lengthy delays and made the application an exercise in frustration for all but the most die-hard user.

Along Came Citrix
Citrix divided the problem into two parts: First, address the speed concerns. If you had to wait 1.5 to 3 minutes for a screen update, this technology's success was going to be limited. Second, reduce the cost per user. If more users could use the same machine at the same time, companies could amortize costs over those users.

Citrix developed a product that solved both parts of the problem: WinView ran on OS/2 and performed reasonably well. WinView made multi-user remote access possible at a reasonable speed, but the product wasn't really the one Citrix wanted to build. This situation was a case of Citrix being ahead of its time. OS/2 just didn't have the horsepower to do what Citrix had in mind.

We won't tell you that Windows NT's rapid rise and success saved Citrix. The truth is, the Citrix technology is so good that if NT weren't available, Citrix probably would have chosen some other platform. But in the end, NT is exactly what Citrix was looking for.

The result of this story is WinFrame for Networks. WinFrame is not a service that runs on NT; it's an extension to NT.

What? A proprietary version of NT? Well, sort of. When you install WinFrame, you are installing NT. Citrix has licensed the source code from Microsoft and extended the NT kernel to allow multiple simultaneous desktops for concurrent users. Sounds confusing, but it really isn't.

Building on NT's strengths, such as Remote Access Service (RAS), scaleability, symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) support, security, and remote-node communications, WinFrame adds concurrent multi-user event tracking, messaging, and performance monitoring. In addition, it provides utilities for configuration and multiple concurrent profiles. The coup de gras is the Citrix Intelligent Console Architecture (ICA) protocol. This protocol is what makes WinFrame faster than other remote-node software.

Installation/Configuration
Installation for WinFrame takes about the same time as installing Windows NT Server, and the installation program is the same. Currently, WinFrame runs only on Intel platforms. The Windows NT Magazine Lab chose a Telos 100-MHz Pentium with 64MB of RAM and a 2GB SCSI drive. A 3Com 3C589 EtherLink III card rounded out the mix.

We didn't experience any surprises. The beta version we tested didn't add the WinFrame icons to the Administrative Tools program group. But a quick call to customer support gave us a workaround and a promise to fix this oversight in the shipping product.

Next, you configure a WinStation, which is like a virtual machine. If five concurrent users will be logged on to your WinFrame machine, you need to configure at least five WinStations.

Configuration is straightforward. First, select the WinStation configuration icon from the Administrative Tools group. Next, choose the WinStation drop-down menu, and select New. Screen 1 shows a sample WinStation dialog. You tell WinFrame what network transport protocol to use in the Transport box, and in the Type box, you tell it what type of client computer will communicate over this link.

Remotely Possible?
With the server taken care of, the client is next. WinFrame supports a variety of clients: DOS, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, and Windows NT. We focused on the NT client.

The omnipresent InstallShield program lets you install the client portion. Insert the disk, run the setup.exe program, supply a directory path for the executables (or take the defaults), and you're done. Then, you can open the WinFrame Client group and click on the Remote Application Manager icon, as you see in screen 2.

To add a new remote application, you need to know which network protocol to use and the name of the WinFrame server. You also need to supply a valid user ID, domain name, and password for automatic logon. If you don't, you must log on to the WinFrame server just like any other NT server. Once you establish the connection, you can run any program on the WinFrame server.

WinFrame's ability to save the connection as an icon on your desktop is an especially nice touch. If you enable the automatic logon feature, you notice little difference between a locally running application and a remote one. From the user's standpoint, all computing is occurring on the WinFrame server. Your local client receives and sends only a minimum of information. The result is remote application execution that rivals local execution. (You can also run Windows applications on the Internet at 28.8Kbits per second--Kbps--or even at Integrated Services Digital Network--ISDN--speeds, using the ICA protocol that makes WinFrame so fast. A beta version for this purpose is available from Citrix's Web site at http://www.citrix.com/hotspot.htm.)