Stats: All about terminal server (February 3, 2003)

Terminal Server (February 3, 2003)

Terminal server is a new and improved approach to using SPSS and SigmaPlot and other programs. You log on to a dedicated computer and run your programs on that computer rather than running SPSS or SigmaPlot through the network.

Terminal server offers several advantages:

Because the code runs on a dedicated computer, SPSS and SigmaPlot will load faster and run faster.
You will no longer have to worry about upgrading to new versions of SPSS and SigmaPlot. The upgrades will be handled for you.
If you have an older computer with compatibility problems, you will encounter fewer difficulties with terminal server.

Listed below are instructions on how to load terminal server on your computer. It is very easy, even for someone who is not a computer nerd. If you prefer to have someone else load terminal server for you, please ask your contact person in Information Systems for help.

We have done some work with the test version of terminal services. You don't need to use the test version, except for special and unusual situations.

Contents

Downloading and installing terminal server.

The software to load terminal server is located on an internal web site. Open Internet Explorer and type

http://10.1.20.59/ts/install.exe

in the address bar. You will get a FILE DOWNLOAD dialog box (see below) that will ask you what to do with the file.

It might look slightly different, depending on the version of Internet Explorer that you are using. Click on the OPEN button. If you don't see an OPEN button, click on the RUN button.

If you see a SECURITY dialog box and/or WINZIP dialog box, click on the YES button to continue.

Once the installation is complete, Click on the START button and select Programs | Terminal Service Client | Client Connection Manager. Then right-click on the CMH TERMINAL icon. This brings up a pop-up menu (see below). Select PROPERTIES from the popup menu.

This will open up the PROPERTIES dialog box. Select the CONNECTION OPTIONS tab and click on the FULL SCREEN option button. This will ensure that terminal server will use your full screen rather than just part of your screen.

Click on the OK button to close this dialog box.

For a second time, right click on the CMH terminal icon to bring up the popup menu. Select CREATE SHORTCUT ON THE DESKTOP from the popup menu. If you do not see an option for "Create Shortcut on the Desktop", you can select "Send To" and then "Desktop (create shortcut)".

Can I load terminal server on my laptop? Your laptop needs to be connected to the network using a high speed internet connection or it needs to be attached directly to the hospital network. Follow the same steps described above. This will allow you to use SPSS on your laptop as long as you have a direct network connection or a connection via high speed internet access.

This webpage was written by Steve Simon on 2003-06-06, edited by Steve Simon, and was last modified on 2008-07-08. Send feedback to ssimon at cmh dot edu or click on the email link at the top of the page.

Logging on to terminal server.

Click on the TRMSERV icon and a TRMSERV - Terminal Services Client window will appear. In the Log On to Windows dialog box (see below), type the same user name and password that you use when you turn on your computer in the morning.

You will now see the desktop of terminal server (see below). This looks very similar to your own desktop, except that it has a different background color and it has the SPSS 11.5 for Windows icon.

You are now connected to terminal server. Double click to open the SPSS folder and then click on the SPSS icon to run SPSS.

How do I exit from terminal server?

At the bottom of the terminal screen is a start button that looks just like the START button on your regular computer. Click on START and select Shut Down from the menu. You will see either a DISCONNECT or LOG OFF option chosen (see below).

Either one works the same. Click on the OK button. Close the Connect to Terminal Server window.

Using files with terminal server.

You cannot use your floppy disk drive or your local hard drive directly from terminal server. Instead, you must save the file on a network drive. The best location is probably your user folder.

You have to tell terminal server the network name of your user folder. Do this once and your computer will remember from that moment forward.

Connect to terminal server and click on the MY COMPUTER icon. This will bring up a folder labeled My Computer (see below).

From the menu, select Tools | Map Network Drive. This will bring up the Map Network Drive dialog box (see below).

You need to assign a drive letter to the location of your network files. It would be best to set the drive letter to V:, but you can use a different letter if you like. Then type in the name of your folder. For me, it would be \\cmhsan08\users\ssimon.

After you have saved to the network, you can copy the file to a floppy disk or a local hard drive.

How do I open files in SPSS terminal server?

You can only open files located on the network. Before you connect to terminal server, copy the file from your floppy disk to a location on the network.

How do I use the training example data sets?

Training example data sets appear on a folder on the desktop as the SPSS Examples folder. Double click on this folder to open it. You can also find this folder on the D drive at D:\SPSS Examples.

Printing from terminal server.

You have to tell terminal server the network name of the printer that you normally use. Do this once and your computer will remember from that moment forward.

Open Internet Explorer and select File | Print from the menu.

Click on the ADD PRINTER icon and follow the instructions. You will get a series of dialog boxes labeled Add Printer Wizard. The instructions are mostly straightforward. After an introductory screen (not shown), you will get a following dialog box asking if you are adding a local printer or a network printer. You must choose the Network printer option (see below), since terminal server does not work with local printers.

It helps if you know the exact name of your printer (one of the printers I use is named \\hpprint02\Medrsrch2).

If you know the exact name of your printer, you can type it in the above dialog box. If you are not 100% certain about the name of your printer, check the option anyway and leave the name blank. You will get a list of printers and print servers to browse through (see below). Do not use the Find a printer in the Directory option button, as that does not work well (at least not for me).

Once you have selected your printer, you should decide if this is the default printer, the one that SPSS terminal server will try to use as its first choice.

When you click on the Next button, you will get a dialog box summarizing your choices. If these choices appear reasonable, click on the Finish button. If something appears to be wrong, use the Back button to fix things.

Removing terminal server from your computer.

Click on Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs. Find Terminal Services Client on the list of programs and click on the Change/Remove button.

Terminal server--What if I get an error message?

First of all, don't panic. Some of these error messages occur because efforts to protect against viruses, trojan horses, and other malicious software also interfere with the normal operations of SPSS and Terminal Server. Here are some of the messages that I have encountered already with a brief explanation of what causes the message and how to work around it.

If you encounter an error message other than the ones described here, please contact me.

Administrator access message. I have never seen this message on my computer, but your computer might pop up a dialog box when you are trying to install terminal server that says something along the lines of you don't have sufficient access or permission or administrator privileges to run SPSS. When IS set up your computer, they added a security layer that protects you against malicious viruses and other computer threats but which also disables your ability to install software on your own. You need to call the help desk and they will temporarily grant you "king/queen for a day" privileges that will enable you to install your own programs for a limited time.

"The client software could not initialize with SPSS Server at ." When loading SPSS, I would get a dialog box that says: "The client software could not initialize with SPSS Server at ." The folks at SPSS told me the solution. "This is the result of either a missing or corrupted file named 'registry.txt' in the SPSS program folder. This problem can be fixed by either reinstalling SPSS or obtaining a new copy of that file from our FTP site and replace it with the one in your SPSS directory. That file is located at ftp://ftp.spss.com/pub/spss/windows. Please locate the one that's specific to your SPSS version." -- SPSS Web Support, personal communication, September 25, 2002.

"This action has been cancelled due to restrictions put on this computer." You should not be getting this error message anymore, but I am keeping it here just in case. This message is actually a paper tiger. What happened a while back is that someone was running terminal server from home and thought it would be fun to download some games to run on terminal server. You know what happened next, of course. Virus attack on terminal server! So our IS folks decided that they had to add some major security restrictions to terminal server. The restrictions interfere with some of the minor bookkeeping activities with SPSS as it starts up. Apparently when SPSS checks for a proper license, it touches a part of terminal server that raises a security flag. But whatever happens on terminal server stays on terminal server. If you click OK on the dialog box, everything in SPSS works just fine.

"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access." At CMH, we have created an SPSS group for security reasons. If you are not part of the SPSS group, you cannot access SPSS and you will get an error message along the lines of the above. Call the help desk (5-3454) and ask to be added to the SPSS group. You may need to reboot your computer afterwards.

"You do not have sufficient access to your machine to connect to the selected printer." This message appears when you are trying to get Terminal Server to recognize and print to your networked printer. This occurs when IS has not installed the appropriate printer drivers on terminal server. Tell me the brand name of your printer, and we can fix it from our end.

Stats >> Software >> Terminal server

This webpage was written by Steve Simon, edited by Linda Foland and Steve Simon, and was last modified on 07/08/08 . Send feedback to ssimon at cmh dot edu or click on the email link at the top of the page.