Review about PC Station

PC Station..

This stuff is quite famous currently as new technology to thrift our expenses, no matter as company or individual's business which may need several or lot of computer for connect to network. There are several exhibition about it in some events.


Currently, as far as I know, there are 2 kind of PC Station. One is made in China, and the other one is NComputing from US. Both of them has same function, with different price ofcourse. For more detail about the price, function and requirements, we can get it from googling..


Well, I will share my review as detail as I can here.. Maybe some people out there will need it as consideration before they buy and use it. There are benefits, and also weakness.








Benefit :

• First of All, this stuff can thrift the hardware cost (CPU cost exactly) at which it doesn't need memory, harddisk, processor and some model also has USB. But you still need Monitor, keyboard and mouse, and LAN Cable (to connect to the host). Without host, it is nothing.. For host requirement, please refer to the seller's website.


• Easy setup and maintenance. You only need to plug the cables of monitor, keyboard, mouse, LAN to the device then turn it on. Just that... Very simple, right?? And nothing more to maintain, not like CPU.


• Can use Static or Dynamic IP (depend on your network).


• We can choose which host to connect to. If we use dynamic IP (from DHCP), the list of all the hosts in the network will shown up. Just pick one to connect to.


• It is light in weight, simple and easy to carry just in case your office move to another area.

Weakness :

• Need Host for connect to. Without any single or more computer (CPU) act as host, this stuff is nothing..


• It really depend on the specification of the host where it connect to. If the host only have minimum requirement (to act as host), then don't shocked if you feel slow in operating your work. But ofcourse, what software you use will give contribution as well.


• Your Network MUST BE VERY STABLE. I highlight this point because it will be crucial for you (and the users who will use this device). If there is some intermittent in your network, the device will look like "hang". User need to to turn off and relogin to the host again. The good news is, if the session still active and not hang as well, then the work which still not being saved yet will still be there (so user will have chance to save it). But, in some cases the host will hang as well which mean the host also need to restarted. In my cases, it happen on Windows XP Professional and Windows 2003 Server. This will quite annoying because once the host become hang, all the stations who connect to it will "suffer" as well.


• The device is quite sensitive to the electricity and LAN signal. Be sure you not turn it off while the device still blinking (working) to avoid it will malfunction suddenly. Such as can not display anything to the monitor, or can not connect to the network and fail detect hosts.


• So far (when I write this blog), the device still can not connect to the host which installed with Windows XP Professional SP 2C. You will get error and failed to connect. I believe Microsoft already tighten the way for connecting via Terminal Service, especially in Win XP SP2c. But you will still able to connect to the host if it installed with Win XP version below SP 2c.


• Don't expect to use this device to do any graphical rendering work, you will get frustate at the end. Well, even you can increase the memory or harddrive but it still use the same cache memory, the same graphic card (VGA) and the same processor to process all the input. So, when rendering graphic (which definitely require great resource) the other session or the host will become very busy. Consider that side carefully..

Legality :

• For all hosts they need their own license of the software which installed in it (if any).


• For all stations they also NEED their own license as well (if the operating system of the host is not free, not Linux but Microsoft Windows). Maybe we will think like me at the beginning, we don't installed anything but why we need license for the clients? Well, Microsoft already declare in the EULA (End User License Agreement) point 1.5 that any remote device will need their own license as the operating system at the host. I think Microsoft already do anticipation for people who want to use the Terminal Services to avoid more licensing of their software. Please correct me for this point if I go wrong. For example, if the host using Windows XP Pro then the clients who connect to it will also need license for Windows XP Pro. The seller not responsible for any license (as I ever read from their websites). If you connect to host with Windows 2003 Server, then you will need license for the CAL.

If I not wrong, the latest model starting to support Linux. If it is true, then you can save more in the licensing part else than hardware.
So far, that is all I can write in this review for now. Hopefully I not forget something to share in it. So, consider carefully which topology is suitable for your network.


"What we got today is the impact of what we did yesterday, and what we do today will impact what we will face tomorrow"