Redirecting COM ports in Citrix Presentation Server 4.5
Hello experts! I've been asked to setup an electronic signature pad for our service reps to accept signatures on documents. We are using Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 (Server 2003) with XP Embedded HP thin clients and publishing applications (not desktops). The application we are dealing with requires us to use the serial port on the thin client which I will need to redirect to the Citrix session where the application is being run. I know this can be done but I am not sure where to start. I'd really appreciate any personal experience with this process since from what I understand it can be tricky to get working reliably.
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You don't -- trust me.. the USB ones are incredibly hard to deal with in a Citrix environment, and are impossible with PS4.5 unless you had some 3rd party software. Serial is far easier to deal with :-)
Coralon
Coralon
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Hi Coralon
Sorry for the long delay, I'm just now getting to test this. I'm not able to find a file called usrlogon.cmd in the system32 folder. I'm using HP thin clients running XP embedded. I checked manually then ran a full system search but didn't find it anywhere. Am I missing something?
Sorry for the long delay, I'm just now getting to test this. I'm not able to find a file called usrlogon.cmd in the system32 folder. I'm using HP thin clients running XP embedded. I checked manually then ran a full system search but didn't find it anywhere. Am I missing something?
ASKER
...or was this to be done on the Citrix servers? There I see the referenced files. Let me know for sure before I start editing, thanks!
This is on the Citrix servers. You don't have to do anything special on the thin clients.
Coralon
Coralon
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Hi Coralon
Well its been a less than successful experiment. From what I've read this is the correct syntax:
net use com1: \\clientname\com1
A couple of problems became evident here. If I need to specify the client name for each thin client that is running a session having a script on the citrix servers won't help since I need to map the com port to about 20 different users. Additionally it does not seem to be working for me. I've setup a published command prompt that lets me run net show command, all that comes across is the local drive. If I run net use com1: \\citrixtest\com1 I get an error stating "System error 85 has occurred. The local device name is already in use." Of course the signature pad does not work either.
I'm kind of stuck at this point and would really appreciate any tips you could offer on other steps I can take to make this work, thanks!
Well its been a less than successful experiment. From what I've read this is the correct syntax:
net use com1: \\clientname\com1
A couple of problems became evident here. If I need to specify the client name for each thin client that is running a session having a script on the citrix servers won't help since I need to map the com port to about 20 different users. Additionally it does not seem to be working for me. I've setup a published command prompt that lets me run net show command, all that comes across is the local drive. If I run net use com1: \\citrixtest\com1 I get an error stating "System error 85 has occurred. The local device name is already in use." Of course the signature pad does not work either.
I'm kind of stuck at this point and would really appreciate any tips you could offer on other steps I can take to make this work, thanks!
ASKER
Another update: I published a desktop so I can fully test this all out. When I connect, go to the command prompt, and attempt to run net view \\client I get System error 53 has occurred. The network path was not found. When I run net use com1: \d it claims to disconnect the COM port mapping. I then run net use com1: \\client\com1: and it says it completed successfully but the signature pad still does not work. It does run fine locally on the thin client but so far not in the citrix sessions. The other odd thing is under My Computer I see Com1 on 'Tsclient' (C:) as the first entry. When I click on it I'm redirected to the local thin client's C drive. Very confused...
Ok, if you do a net view \\client and you get an error 53, then you have redirection disabled. How are your users connecting? You'll want to make sure you have redirection enabled & turned on. A lot depends on the version of the client and *how* the client connects.
COM port redirection has been around since the WinFrame days (and hasn't changed since then.. it just works, as long as it doesn't get disabled).
There is no question about how you connect the COM port in 4.5.. that hasn't changed in forever :-) When XA 6.0 was released, they changed it to a Citrix policy, but it can still be done the old way, and still works.
Coralon
COM port redirection has been around since the WinFrame days (and hasn't changed since then.. it just works, as long as it doesn't get disabled).
There is no question about how you connect the COM port in 4.5.. that hasn't changed in forever :-) When XA 6.0 was released, they changed it to a Citrix policy, but it can still be done the old way, and still works.
Coralon
ASKER
Hi Coralon
I actually got it worked out, just not quite how we initially discussed. I can map the serial ports with no problem with the net use command but setting up the .com files above didn't seem to work for me. Now I just have to figure out why the application that we're using won't accept the serial input! Thanks for all of your help.
I actually got it worked out, just not quite how we initially discussed. I can map the serial ports with no problem with the net use command but setting up the .com files above didn't seem to work for me. Now I just have to figure out why the application that we're using won't accept the serial input! Thanks for all of your help.
.com files?
Glad to help :-)
But, for the application - where is it configured to use the COM port? Is it a machine level setting, or a per-user setting?
Coralon
Glad to help :-)
But, for the application - where is it configured to use the COM port? Is it a machine level setting, or a per-user setting?
Coralon
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