The information in this article applies to:
All PracticeMaster and Tabs3 systems should be terminated properly to prevent certain potential problems with the applications and data. With Microsoft Windows Terminal Services, there are several situations that can result in abnormal termination of Tabs3 and PracticeMaster applications, potentially causing data corruption and/or other errors. This article provides detailed recommendations regarding the settings used by Terminal Services to handle disconnected clients.
With Terminal Services, it is possible to reset users from the Terminal Server Manager. Resetting a session that is running a Tabs3 or PracticeMaster application can leave files in an open state, which can cause fatal errors and can lead to data corruption. Just as we do not recommend resetting an active user from within the Tabs3 software, improper resetting of Terminal Services Sessions should be avoided.
Microsoft has identified an issue which may cause Windows 2000 Terminal Server to hang (i.e., stop responding) when a remote connection is closed on a Windows 98 or Windows 95 share. This problem was first corrected with the release of Windows 2000 Service Pack 3. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 307281, "Windows 2000 Terminal Server Hangs When You Close a Remote Connection".
Normally, users log in to a Terminal Services session, run programs, close the programs, and then go through the shutdown procedure and log off from the Terminal Services session. However, it is possible to click the "X" icon of a Terminal Services window and be disconnected from the Windows session without logging off from the Terminal Services session. Programs continue to run on the server, and the user can log back in to the session and continue from the point they were at when they closed the Terminal Services window. Based on how settings are specified in the Terminal Services user file, this could potentially cause session timeout problems. The next section of this article discusses the user file settings in Terminal Services that can affect the Tabs3 and PracticeMaster software.
Some of the settings in the Terminal Services User file can impact Tabs3 and PracticeMaster software. The method used to access these settings from a Terminal Services server that is also a Domain Controller (e.g., \\SERVER1) is different than the method used for terminal servers that are not Domain Controllers, as follows:
The following image illustrates the Sessions tab of the Terminal Services controls for a user, as accessed on a terminal server that is also a Domain Controller:
The following table lists the fields on the Sessions tab. A description of each field is provided, along with the settings we recommend for avoiding potential problems with files being left in an open state. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 186566, "Connection Configuration in Terminal Server". For information on configuring Group Policy settings on Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 260370, "How to apply Group Policy objects to Terminal Services servers".
|
Field |
Description/Recommended Setting |
|
End a disconnected session |
This setting indicates the amount of time after which a disconnected session should be automatically reset on the server. |
|
Active session limit |
This setting indicates the maximum amount of time that any session can last before being automatically disconnected or reset. |
|
Idle session limit |
This setting indicates the amount of time after which an idle session should automatically be disconnected or reset. |
|
When a session limit is reached or a connection is broken |
This setting controls what happens when a connection to the server is broken for any reason. |
|
Allow reconnection |
This setting will not have an impact on our software, so there is no recommendation as to the setting. |
Note: Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For operating system specific information, see Microsoft's Product Solution Centers. For technical information, see Microsoft TechNet's Terminal Services Technical Reference.
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