Terminal Services and AUDIO

[frlill]

The Terminal Services Client of Win2000 Server DOES NOT support redirection of audio. The Remote Desktop Client of WinXP Professional however DOES support audio.
I recently heared that if you install the RDC client of WinXP on the clients and log in to a Win2000 server with a soundcard installed in it and running Terminal Services, the audio the applications of this WIN2K server would be redirected to the clients. Has anyone tested this ?

[TonyK]

I don't think that will work. I run Citrix here at the office, and I believe it's a Citrix extension that allows redirection of audio. I don't think you can do it with plain TS.

[davistw]

Microsoft Terminal Services does not currently support Audio. I have heard that the next release will but when?????

[gregoryx]

Doing exactly that frlill: RDC client running on XP logging in to Win2K Advanced Server Terminal Server. Although the audio checkbox is now there on the RDC client config, it doesn't work. The W2K TS client doesn't have any audio devices present to use - need the "virtual" audio devices as provided by Citrix.

(see profile for environment)

[frlill]

Do you have a soundcard installed in the server ? They told me this had to be the case.

I also found a discussion on newsgroup microsoft.public.windowsnt.terminalserver.client where they say it is possible with the new XP RDC client or with the .NET client. There will be a discussion going on about this on the 10th of july.

[gregoryx]

Yup. Server works great with audio and all. Maybe there's a virtual driver that needs to be loaded? Dunno...

(see profile for environment)

[frlill]

Gregory X,
Maybe something has to be changed in the registry or so. I will try to find out and keep you posted.

[gregoryx]

That would be VERY cool, frlill! Thanks.

(see profile for environment)

[frlill]

Gregory X,
Here's how the guy who told me it was possible did it: they first installed Citrix Metaframe on the Win2K server and removed the Citrix after a while, but THEY STILL HAD AUDIO with the WinXP remote desktop clients.
So, something was left there when they de-installed the Citrix kept the audio working. Might be a registry key or a DLL that was not erased or so. Problem is: they do not have this setup anymore, so no way of finding it out with them. I am going to try to reproduce this when I install my Win2K server at home in a couple of weeks. Will keep you posted.

Another thing: there was a microsoft tech chat last night about TS that I attended. I asked the question about audio tot the MS staff. Their only answer was: audio is not supported by RDP 5.0, but is supported by RDP 5.1 which is available in WinXP and WILL BE available when .NET server is released. Asking "when will .NET server be released" their answer was : "When it is ready". That's all the help you get from Microsoft. It's time someone else comes up with a new OS (Lindows ?)

Will keep you posted about the results of my experiment.

[gregoryx]

Thanks for the update, frlill. The Citrix install / uninstall thing makes me think that my initial suspicion was accurate: it's a driver thing. If we could find the Citrix virtual audio drivers, I suspect we'd be set!

(see profile for environment)

[TonyK]

"That's all the help you get from Microsoft. It's time someone else comes up with a new OS (Lindows ?)"

They answered you question exactly about how to get audio working. The answer to the question as to when the new version is out is a valid one as well. You want them to give you a date and then slip it as they've done in the past?

Half people on the planet complain that it takes too long for new versions to come out, the other half complains that it's rushed to market...sheesh! There's just no pleasing anyone. We issue licenses to drive cars but not computers. Really need to change that.

Good luck with Lidows. If you think you don't get tech support from MS, you're going to be greatly disappointed in Lindows. They don't anwer ANY questions. If you do get an answer it's from a fellow user who alread spent 10 hours figuring it out.

[gregoryx]

Thanks, TonyK. That was helpful!

(see profile for environment)