SMS: Remote Control with 16 Colors Generates More Traffic

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Systems Management Server version 1.1
• Microsoft Japanese Systems Management Server version 1.1

SYMPTOMS

If either the computer running the Systems Management Server Administrator or the client involved in a remote control session is configured to use a 16-color video mode, the network traffic generated will actually be greater than a remote control session involving systems using higher color video modes.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, avoid using 16-color mode on both the computer running the Systems Management Server Administrator and the client being controlled remotely.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Systems Management Server version 1.1. This problem has been corrected in version 1.2.

MORE INFORMATION

When either the Systems Management Server Administrator Console or a Systems Management Server client computer are running in a video mode using 16 colors (four bits per pixel, or bpp), a Remote Control session between them will generate much more network traffic. This increased traffic results in slower screen updates.

If one or both of these computers are running in other video color modes, such as 256 colors (8 bpp), 64 thousand colors (16 bpp), or 16.7 million colors (24 bpp), the amount of network traffic will actually be reduced. When both of the computers are running 16 colors, the difference becomes tremendously significant, in some cases increasing the amount of network traffic by 95 times.

NOTE: In Systems Management Server 1.1, Help Desk utilities only work on clients running MS-DOS and Windows. This problem does not apply to clients running Windows NT, the Macintosh operating system, or OS/2.