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Can Microsoft Windows applications be hosted from the Internet? The answer is "almost" with Insignia Solutions' Net Client. Insignia is offering Net Client for its popular NTRIGUE application server. Previously, NTRIGUE clients were limited to X Windows-capable machines (such as Unix), but Net Client hosts NTRIGUE sessions without X-and it doesn't even n
eed an attorney. Although they're not embedded directly in Web pages, Windows applications also are available to desktops using Net Client as a helper application, even on Apple Computer Macintosh and Unix platforms. I tested Net Clients for both platforms.
Previously, we tested HDS Network Systems'
@workStation
, which also uses the NTRIGUE server for applications but uses X to display Windows applications. With the Net Client, Insignia accesses NTRIGUE servers using a proprietary protocol, Intelligent Console Architecture (ICA), developed by Citrix Systems, which is much more effective with network resources than X (for more on ICA, see www.citrix.com/icatech1.htm).
The Client Testifies Windows applications on your desktop are hosted via a network server (called the NTRIGUE
server). NTRIGUE is a multiuser, multidisplay version of Windows NT Server 3.51. Using either an X serve
r or the Net Client, your machine connects to the NTRIGUE server, runs an application and displays it on your local machine, much like X hosting in Unix. This appears similar to a full NT session, as though you were sitting at the NT console, complete with a login window and access to the entire OS.
The X server implementation usually is used to access Windows applications from a Unix machine because X is native to most Unix flavors. With the Net Client, you can access the NTRIGUE server using a Macintosh or Windows 3.1 (16-bit) or Win95/NT (32-bit) machine. Why not run applications locally on the Windows machines? Well, the Net Client also lets you access machines over the Internet or other machines with applications you don't have, such as product demos. Vendors no longer have to distribute the software for you to demo it.
When used in conjunction with the HDS @workStation, NTRIGUE relies on its ability to display a login session on X servers (included with Unix machines). Though X works well with p
rograms that are written directly to the X protocol, NTRIGUE displays are heftier and rely on more bit mapping. The Net Client uses the ICA proprietary protocol to make better use of bandwidth. In our tests with @workStation, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word data loads took about 0.5 MB and 3.0 MB of network traffic, respectively. With the Net Client, the same functions were reduced to about 75 KB and 50 KB, respectively.
Want to make use of that low-bandwidth requirement? Remember the days when Web browsers didn't load JPEG files inline? You configured a "helper application" that would launch to display any downloaded files. Net Client also works this way with files of Multiprotocol Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)-type applications. You simply make a configuration file using Insignia's supplied Client Editor. With a simple anchor tag in your Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the configuration file trigg
ers your client machine to load the Net Client and attach to an NTRIGUE server.
Robert J. K
ohlhepp can be reached at rkohlhepp@nwc.com.
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