Terminal Services Client *With* mapped drives for Pocket PC? Copying remote files ?

[jlan5584]

Does anyone know of a terminal services/Windows RDP client for pocket pc that will mount your pocket pc as a drive letter in My Computer, thus allowing you to copy files remotley. I use this feature all the time on Windows XP, and - like usual with Microsoft's stripped down Pocket PC software- can't believe they left something this crucial out of the TS client.

I know I could use use the VPN client on my PPC, but the problem with that is I only get around 5-10kbytes max running over my cell phone's bluetooth connection, and the overhead from a vpn makes copying files just too slow and unreliable.

Any ideas to work around this? Thanks

[Darius Wey]

How are you intending to connect to your PC (e.g. Bluetooth or 802.11)?

EDIT: If you connect via ActiveSync, your device will appear as "Mobile Device" in My Computer. You can transfer files this way. Or are you looking for something a little more "network-based" with the use of IP addresses?

[jlan5584]

Hi. thanks for responding. I am using my Pocket PC's bluetooth to connect to my cell phone's bluetooth, which allows me to access the internet over my cell phone (although fairly slow).

Your activesync idea is a good one, althought it isn't quite what I was hoping for. I am refering more to a Mobile to Server idea, and Exchange 2003's activesync "support" is really stripped down to contact and calendar syncronization, not files. The desktop version of activesync, which most people use, has a lot more features and does give us the "mobile device" option in my computer.

Basically what I am looking for is having my pocket pc (mobile device) show up under My Computer as a mounted drive letter. This is pretty much the same as if you were to find a file share, say \\192.168.1.20\worddoc and use the dos "net use F: \\192.168..\word docs", which would show the file share as a "F:" harddrive for the user.

If you've ever used Remote Desktop or Terminal Services/Citrix, you might have noticed that when you connect remotley it automatically mounts your remote harddrive so you can access your files.

For Example:

Laptop [ Terminal Services/RDP Client ] ------- > Work Server

The laptop's harddrives will show up on the work server you are logged into under My Computer. So you could drag a word document from your server to your laptop, and to the user it just looks like another harddrive under My computer.

[Darius Wey]

Thanks. Now I have a better idea of what you're after.

I'll see what I can dig up and keep you posted if I find anything that may be of interest. :)

[jlan5584]

thanks! I appreciate it. I've been wondering why more people havn't mentioned this issue, but I guess most users are connecting to the fully featured desktop activesync, which would show "mobile device" in my computer.

But I think it would be in everyone's interest to find a way to do this with the Terminal Services client, because the shortfull of the activesync method will only syncronize their selected PPC folders with their desktop, rather then letting them browse their desktop computer, and go find a word file and transfer it back to their pocket pc.

[Darius Wey]

I'm not 100% sure if this will do it, but there's a program called Network Browser by V-Mobile Software, which you can have a look at here. (http://www.vmobilesoftware.com/NetworkBrowser.htm)

I have yet to give this program a go so I'm not sure what it's networking capabilities are as yet, and whether or not it supports what you're after.

[jlan5584]

hmm thanks for the link, but that is still a little different. It does look pretty nice to have an organized network browser.

The problem with it is that from the standpoint of that program, it is dealing with private - internal, ie 192.168.x.x - lan IP addresses. They are looking at this from the point of view of you connecting using either your lan wifi AP, thus getting a private internal IP address where these other computers are also located, OR, VPNing (requires a fast connection) accross the internet into your private lan, which would then give you a local IP address in which you can communicate and share with other local computers.

What I want to do is use the remote desktop connection to share files between the Pocket PC and the server I am connected to. I can VPN into my lan, but this only works if I have a fast connection (usually wifi, say at starbucks) but going over bluetooth from my pocket pc to my cellphone that only gets 5-10kb/sec isn't going to be able to do a VPN reliabily due to the overhead of the VPN encryption/tunneling data.

So not only is Remote Desktop/Terminal services ideal because it is fast, but because it has encryption as well so no one can easily sniff your data out. What is missing in the -typical- microsoft Pocket PC implementation of Terminal services is file sharing - ie, mounting my pocket pc as a drive in My Computer on my server so I can share files between the two.

Thanks again though. And if you find anything else lemme know

[Darius Wey]

Hard to solve isn't it? ;)

There's an article discussing remote connections from Pocket PCs here (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/bridgman_02june10.mspx)- yet nothing really informative when it comes to drive mapping. I'll see if I can dig up some more stuff for you.

[jlan5584]

wow, well thanks man. Hope this isn't eatting away at your leisure time. This kinda stuff really pisses me off though, because with Pocket "Word", "Outlook", "Excel", their VPN software, and this remote desktop software, microsoft really does a half-a** job with their "powerfull/production" software. This costs PPC users a lot of time and money trying to deal with this stuff; I had to buy much more feature-packed office software packages for pocket pc which do what microsoft claimed their software would do. The problem here is with how Microsoft impletments their software so poorly </end rant> thank goodness for this forum or I'd be screwed!

[Darius Wey]

wow, well thanks man. Hope this isn't eatting away at your leisure time.

Don't worry! ;) I've got the day off today. :P

[Darius Wey]

I originally neglected to offer this package as a solution. I still do not believe it will provide drive mapping abilities over remote connections as you originally specified; I've searched high and low (maybe not enough :P) and there does not yet appear to be any easy way around what you're after.

There is a software package called NetOp Remote Control (http://www.netop.com/) which basically allows cross-platform remote connections between devices. As to whether it can provide drive mapping functionality, that's another issue which has to be explored.

I'm really hoping that future versions of the Windows Mobile OS will provide this remote driving mapping functionality as I'm sure many people, like yourself, would use it.

I'll still continue to be on the lookout for any solutions to your problem, and if I stumble upon any, I'll be sure to keep you posted.

[Cybrid]

I'd hate to say this but since you obviously know enough to use terminal server, couldn't it be better to host a secure FTP site? Be less of a hassle without VPN overhead....
A very clunky workaround could be terminal server to access www.yousendit.com and then dowload from their FTP servers.

[Darius Wey]

I'd hate to say this but since you obviously know enough to use terminal server, couldn't it be better to host a secure FTP site? Be less of a hassle without VPN overhead....
A very clunky workaround could be terminal server to access www.yousendit.com and then dowload from their FTP servers.

I was thinking of suggesting this from the start. However, I think what jlan5584 requires is some tight integration between the Pocket PC and the remote computer. FTP can get a little messy at times and VPN would otherwise allow much easier control over remote systems (well, you'd like to think so anyway). :P With the latter, you aren't just limited to file transfers.

[jlan5584]

thanks for the help guys. Yeah i'd settle for SFTP, but there is no client that I'm aware of that runs on the pocket pc. I hate to say it, but looks like if this is ever gona be implemented in a remote desktop client, we either have to wait for Microsoft (PPC 2005? ) or else some 3rd party. Either way it won't be anytime soon :cry:

[jlan5584]

another thought. Could it be that I have a crappy VPN? I am using a hacked Linksys WRT54G router which uses some minimal linux OS, and allows for builtin PPTP VPN connections. The reason why I bring this up is because I have read a few other posts about people VPNing into their computer - not into their router, but Windows XP's builtin VPN server - and then using remote deskop! All over their 56K modem! My phone speeds are slightly better than a 56K, ranging from 5-10kbytes

[Darius Wey]

thanks for the help guys. Yeah i'd settle for SFTP, but there is no client that I'm aware of that runs on the pocket pc. I hate to say it, but looks like if this is ever gona be implemented in a remote desktop client, we either have to wait for Microsoft (PPC 2005? ) or else some 3rd party. Either way it won't be anytime soon :cry:

ShareIt FTP (http://www.noisette-software.com/products/pocketpc/ShareIt/) seems to do a good job at this. Coupled with GetIt FTP, of which Jason also made a front page post about, you may have a solution on your hands.

another thought. Could it be that I have a crappy VPN? I am using a hacked Linksys WRT54G router which uses some minimal linux OS, and allows for builtin PPTP VPN connections. The reason why I bring this up is because I have read a few other posts about people VPNing into their computer - not into their router, but Windows XP's builtin VPN server - and then using remote deskop! All over their 56K modem! My phone speeds are slightly better than a 56K, ranging from 5-10kbytes

With respect to this, are you able to borrow a friend's router to test it out? I find it's a lot easier solving problems when you can test "alternate" ways of connecting, and if indeed a friend's router solves the problem for you, then you start to narrow down the problem. It makes it a lot easier to find answers in the long run. :P

[jlan5584]

hmm, I'll have to try those ssl ftp clients.

Well I decided to do PPTP port forwarding on my router and forward PPTP VPN packets directly to my Windows XP machine that has incoming VPNs enabled. Using my Pocket PC over my phone -connecting via VPN- it took about 30+ seconds for the terminal services client to connect, where it would finally loaded the login screen, but was still very slow and unuseable. So it looks like the Windows XP VPN uses a little less bandwidth then the one built into my router, but it still isn't useable. As a comparison, when I do a direct TS connection going through my phone, and not using a VPN, it takes about 8 seconds to connect, windows refresh fairly fast, and it is useable.

Thanks guys