[THIN] Re: USB devices on Windows based clients

  • From: Steve Snyder <kwajalein@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:55:51 +1200

banned, so no issues (or advice) here. :D

Greg pretty much covered why they're banned.

On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 1:49 AM, Warren Simondson <caditc@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I agree with Greg with regards to using USB keys in a corporate setting and
> the risk they pose,
> and it does become ever so boring to hear yet another spiel about how
> Citrix doesn't really have it
> right and of course there is a certain third party vendor that "almost" has
> the solution, but not
> quite – and of course we should all buy this solution in anticipation for
> what is about to come.
>
> Having said that, I know that XP embedded devices were mentioned here as
> the chosen device,
> but I have found great success in using plug and play USB keys through
> Citrix by using WYSE S10
> and V10L devices – using WTOS of Course.
>
> Provided you have client drive mapping on, and you have your wnos.ini with
> the following setting,
> you can have most plug and play USB storage drives operate dynamically
> without logging in and
> out of a Citrix session. In other words you can pull a USB key in and out
> during an active session
> and it will read it without issues. Some key drive do not work however, but
> I have found about
> 80% do in my tsting so far.
>
> This line must be in the WNOS.ini
>
> WNOS.ini
> ;*************************************************************
> ;*                       General Session                     *
> ;*************************************************************
>
> SessionConfig=ALL MapDisks=yes
>
> ;*************************************************************
>
> If you use WYSE terminals with WTOS and you aren't sure how to modify the
> WNOS.ini, just use
> CONFGEN, a great tool that lets you build a wnos.ini with a simple GUI.
> Download it from:
> http://www.technicalhelp.de/download.htm - latest version is ConfGen
> 5.0.02.
>
> Also for the programmers among us, Windows 2008 WTSAPI has a new reference
> which probably
> has already been discussed at some stage. It's called Dynamic Virtual
> Channels and it has the
> ability to create plug and play USB "mappings" with it's various reference
> calls. I have written one
> example that dynamically maps a USB memory stick in a Terminal Server 2008
> Session, but I
> haven't released it yet because it was a quick whip up for a customer and
> I'm sure there's more to
> do to it. But just as an example, it can be done.
>
> --
> Warren Simondson
>
> Ctrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy Pty Ltd
> Website: http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com.au
>
>
>
>
> Quoting Greg Reese <gareese@xxxxxxxxx>:
>
> > I've been watching this thread. I don't see anything wrong with
> > simply
> > telling users that if they want to access their thumbdrive, then they
> >
> > need to insert it before initiating their session. Yes it is
> > inconvenient but it is low impact. Remember, not all solutions are
> > technical. If the users don't like it then tough $hit, usb drives
> > spread viruses and steal corporate secrets anyway.
> >
> > That said, It also might be worth testing to connect back to it as a
> >
> > network drive. We're talking about and xpe thin client here so the
> > drive configuration should remain predictable. So mapping a drive to
> > \
> > \clientname\d$ should circle back to that USB drive. You could wrap
> >
> > that up in a batch file for the user to run after they plug in the
> > drive.  Client name or client ip is a session variable you can access
> >
> > so one script should do it.
> >
> > Greg
> >
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone
> >
> > On Feb 11, 2009, at 4:52 AM, Rick Mack <ulrich.mack@xxxxxxxxx>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Hi David,
> > >
> > > One thing has to be made clear. Citrix do not support USB
> > > redirection with XenApp server. Not for USB storage devices, nor
> > USB
> > > Activesync nor USB printers. XenDesktop now supports USB redrection
> >
> > > using the new HDX USB Virtual hub, XenApp doesn't.
> > >
> > > Plugging in a USB storage device on a Windows system initiates the
> >
> > > USBSTOR driver and mounts that USB device as a local drive. When
> > you
> > > initiate an ICA or RDP session and have client drive remapping
> > > enabled, the client's local drives, including the USB storage
> > device
> > > will be visible in the terminal services session.
> > >
> > > But only when you start your terminal services session, not if the
> >
> > > USB drive is plugged in later. DynamicUSB gets around this problem
> >
> > > by dynamically linking USB storage drives to a subdirectory on the
> >
> > > local user's C: drive. So all you're doing when you plug in a drive
> >
> > > during a session is changing the contents of a directory. This is
> >
> > > actually pretty elegant since it nicely gets around the need to
> > > restart a session to see a new local drive.
> > >
> > > It turns out that USB redirection on a terminal server is both very
> >
> > > easy and actually nearly impossible. Creating a redirected USB
> > > virtual hub isn't all that hard, but that's visible to every user
> > on
> > > a terminal server. Session isolation and the incorporation of stuff
> >
> > > like virtual loopbacks etc to support Activesync gets quite
> > difficult.
> > >
> > > To date the only company to support true isolated USB redirection
> > on
> > > terminal services is Quest's provision Networks division (USB-IT).
> >
> > > Trouble is USB-IT was only aimed at specified relatively low speed
> >
> > > PDA devices and not a lot else (though it was extensible). We're
> > > working on something totally generic for USB-IT V2 but that's still
> >
> > > a few months away before we've got something to show.
> > >
> > > Otherwise there's always Server 2008/Windows 7 but from what I can
> >
> > > tell I don't think that's going to be generic USB redirection
> > > either. But I could definitely be wrong.
> > >
> > > It might be worthwhile to persevere with DynamicUSB. If it let you
> >
> > > use a folder off a RAM disk on an embedded XP device it'd be
> > perfect.
> > >
> > > regards,
> > >
> > > Rick
> > >
> > > --
> > > Ulrich Mack
> > > Quest Software
> > > Provision Networks Division
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 8:16 AM, David Demers
> > <David.Demers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > > wrote:
> > > Sorry, specifically we are mostly dealing with USB portable
> > drives.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> >
> > > On Behalf Of Steve Greenberg
> > > Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 3:14 PM
> > > To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Subject: [THIN] Re: USB devices on Windows based clients
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > What type of USB device are you attaching?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Steve Greenberg
> > >
> > > Thin Client Computing
> > >
> > > 34522 N. Scottsdale Rd D8453
> > >
> > > Scottsdale, AZ 85266
> > >
> > > (602) 432-8649
> > >
> > > www.thinclient.net
> > >
> > > steveg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> >
> > > On Behalf Of David Demers
> > > Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:36 PM
> > > To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Subject: [THIN] USB devices on Windows based clients
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Hi guys,
> > >
> > > I've been fighting with an issue with USB devices on my Windows XP
> >
> > > Embedded devices. The problem is (as I'm sure many of you have
> > > experienced) that if a user plugs in a device after the ICA session
> >
> > > has begun, the session does not detect the device being added. When
> >
> > > we used Linux based thin clients this was not an issue, but it
> > > appears that the windows based ICA client is unable to provide this
> >
> > > feature.
> > >
> > > We found a nifty little utility called DynamicUSB
> > (http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX112588
> > > ) that sort of addresses this issue, but the basic premise and the
> >
> > > assorted workarounds to make it palatable in our environment is
> > > frankly a bit cludgy. I was wondering if others are experiencing
> > > similar issues and/or what other methods have been employed to
> > > address this.
> > >
> > > -David
> > >
> > > P.S. Sorry if this is a double post… wasn't sure if the first one
> > we
> > > nt to the correct address
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>
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