Remote PC / Thin Clients?

[katie279]

Hi all,

We've got around 6-7 main PCs around the house - two high end PCs in our office, but we also have others scattered around the place (eg in my sewing room, workshop, garden Room, lounge etc).

I find it's a bit of a chore keeping all the PCs up to date and often if find myself needing to install software on the PC I'm using as I haven't done it on this.

So, sorry if this is a very stupid question, but could I keep two powerful PCs in my office and then remote connect to them through lots of thin clients around the house?

All the PCs are wired ethernet, so don't think that should be a problem - are there any downsides to this approach?

It feels like I'd be able to just install things once and be done with it?

 

[LuckyBenski]

100% doable, it could be as simple as using RDP (Windows remote desktop) assuming you're running Windows on some/all of them.

There can be done lag issues and similar but TBF I've almost always been wireless on the client side, or even wireless+VPN to another office. So your prospects look good on a home wired LAN

One thing that occurred to me halfway down your post - do they need to be PCs? Could they be laptops/ a laptop? Just thinking about the size/power consumption/convenience angle. I'm really not a laptop person but like you I get frustrated when I have any more than about 2 PCs in regular use. I still haven't solved the "software/files/resources I need when I want them" problem yet.

Edit: you could try the system out by setting up your main computer as an RDP host (turn it on in Windows, note IP address. That's it). Then see how you get along - sooner or later you will prob want a network drive to keep stuff in for quick transfers. Just map every computer to it, done.

 

[katie279]

Thanks Benski - really helpful!!!

Yes, I do run windows on all of them - although that's interesting in itself I guess, as could be further way to save money by having Linux thin clients and removing in if that was possible (ie two windows licenses Vs 7-8!)

Re PCs - I guess they could be laptops (have two of those I didn't include in the count!) - I just tend to prefer a 'proper PC' - laptops are great for mobile use, but for any serious use I tend to prefer a full mouse, keyboard, monitors etc etc. Is your thinking more about saving power? I guess a suitable thin client PC would achieve this?

I've already got a NAS setup, so I think that would cover your network drive point (unless I've misunderstood!) .

Hmm, might have a fiddle this weekend and see if I can get something going.....

 

[LuckyBenski]

Re PCs - I guess they could be laptops (have two of those I didn't include in the count!) - I just tend to prefer a 'proper PC' - laptops are great for mobile use, but for any serious use I tend to prefer a full mouse, keyboard, monitors etc etc. Is your thinking more about saving power? I guess a suitable thin client PC would achieve this?

Partly power, but also it may be that laptops can be slightly more flexible e.g. sharing one laptop between 2-3 of your "locations". That might just as easily be annoying though, like when you own 3 of a tool but they all somehow end up not in the room your need! I keep buying more tape measures and they somehow all end up on my girlfriend's desk I agree on proper screen and keyboard really. Don't even like using a mouse much but touchpads are awful.

Sounds like you've got a plan! The cool thing is you can try it on the existing machine as an experiment. See if you can do everything by RDP without using the client machine's native setup. One tricky thing may be connected hardware e.g. if you have 3D printers or similar connected by USB. But you can tackle that as it comes up.

In terms of actual computers if you go thin client (may not be needed for a few years if the existing PCs aren't ancient) - there are lots of USFF machines around now. I have a few ex-office computers like the Lenovo Tiny series and HP Elitedesk Mini. Absolutely brilliant size to performance ratio!

 

[katie279]

Great advice - thank you so much, Benski!

Ok looking forward to trying this - it's a good point actually, it's partly also about the attached devices that limits laptops - eg I have a smart sewing machine and a cricut in the sewing room, a 3d printer in another room, the workshop has a CNC etc etc. So really am not going to be pluggin/unplugging everything (and then installing all the software!).

So this is a good point actually - I've got the 3d printer attached to a raspi with octoprint, so that'd be ok, but would be a problem for other devices.

I guess I'd need to think of some way to centralise the USB devices or connect them to the central PC via ethernet....

Hmm... Time to fiddle.....! (I may be back!)