mstsc/console
I have a headless WS03 server @ home hosting my personal web, blog, digital media etc. The original idea was just to keep my hands dirty, a forcing function to write more code. Outlook Express Program Management has been brutal on the time I have available to be ultra technical (meaning, write code). This server is headless because as a mature PC technology consumer, I am a confirmed late lagger. I will not buy the latest CPU, monitor or enclosure. I will not buy the latest RAM or WIFI router. I will however splurge on Bluetooth and UWB or other non mature PC related tech when they first get out; I will tinker with it and then stop until they get down in price before I integrate into my own lifestyle.
So for the digital media portion of my server, I get the latest SoundBlaster card with >108db SNR output, get great 5.1 speakers with >97db SNR resolution. I borrow a spare monitor from a friend to install, trouble shoot and verify. I unplug the monitor and spend a few late nights at work unable to tinker. I rush home semi-early some day and TS into my server from my couch so that I can remotely play a selection from my monstrous music collection.
And No Dice. Not a single peep.
Some error about your sound card being disabled or unavailable (my brain has refused to remember the precise error because of how traumatic the event was.) Of course I know this has worked in the past, still I am tempted to try all sorts of arcane things to troubleshoot this. Only logic and laziness prevents me from ripping out the card and checking to see if I have the wrong serial number). Google does not help (This is the place where I riff on how us techies have set our bar so low that we think Google is sent from God. Half the time you can’t find what you want if you have a search objective that is more than some simple item. Knowledge mgt is abysmal people, that’s the truth. Google may the best thing out there with MSN revving into the game very soon, but web search is still very one-dimensional way to retrieve complicated information).
This story has a good ending: For WS03, the sound card is not supported on just any TS session. It has to be the console session. WinXP’s RDP client does not connect you to the console session by default since there can be multiple non-console sessions. Connecting to WINXP does not have this problem because the only session IS the console session. After a few days of floundering, the guy next door helped me discover the switches of the mstsc command and I led myself to the Promised Land without having to butcher my server.
Typing ‘mstsc /console’ will bring up the regular connection dialog. You then specify under the ‘Local Resources’ options that the sound should be left at the remote computer.
