Administering an ISP Installation

Terminal Services

Although you can remotely manage IIS 5.0 Web sites from the IIS snap-in or the Internet Services Manager (HTML), you cannot perform Windows 2000 administrative tasks through them. However, with Terminal Services, you can administer a Windows 2000 Server as well as IIS 5.0 from a remote computer.

Terminal Services was originally created so low-powered machines (thin clients) could run applications that required more resources than the computer could offer. For example, you could run Microsoft® Office 2000 applications on a computer that is running Microsoft® Windows® version 3.1. But with Terminal Services client software installed, a client computer can connect to a computer that is running Windows 2000 Server (with Terminal Services server software), and run these applications through the server.

To install Terminal Services, you must select it when installing Window 2000 Server. Once the server is set up, you can install the client software on a computer that is running Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft® Windows® 98, or even a 16-bit version of Windows such as Windows 3.1. From the client, you connect to the server through a local area network (LAN), PPTP, or dial-up connection and perform any administrative tasks you want, even though the server you’re administering may be halfway around the world.

In addition to setting DACLs and performing other Windows 2000 administrative tasks, a Terminal Services client can administer IIS 5.0 remotely through the IIS snap-in. First, connect the client to the Windows 2000 Server. Next, mirror the server’s desktop and the IIS snap-in on the server. Through the snap-in, you can perform any IIS 5.0 administrative task on the remote server that you could if you were actually at the site. For example, you can create Web sites, change access permission, or administer IIS 5.0 security. You can basically do anything that you could with the IIS snap-in.

For detailed information about Terminal Services, see the Windows 2000 Server online documentation.