The Highs and Lows with the ASUS 1000H
Posted by Wayne Barry on July 1, 2009
April 2009
The User Technology Team started to configure the ASUS 1000H with Microsoft Vista as part of it’s 3 icon strategy to bring it in line with the University’s overall Vista strategy. The start up times were proven to be slow, and the connection to Eduroam was equally slow. Once they managed to get logged in, the performance was acceptable after defragmenting, indexing, and removing any surplus start up programs.
The team believed that Sophos (the antivirus application) is the main culprit for the ASUS’ slowness and came to the consensus of opinion that Microsoft’s Vista is too slow to run on a N270. The Team went about using a cut down version of Windows XP called Windows XP Fundamentals. This, basically, just provides an RDP session to a terminal server; there’s no Internet Explorer, Wordpad or IP config. Although Sophos was installed, it did raise the questions whether it was entirely necessary. This configuration demonstrated that getting a connection to a Terminal Server was taking upto 4 minutes, for the following reasons:
- Delay with Sophos initiation
- Delay in obtaining IP address via Eduroam?? Could this be the DHCP?
- Delay in authenticating Eduroam?? Was this down to the connection?
With regards to TS2008 with App-V; this seems to be very slow in installing applications. So initial tests for this set up have not been encouraging. The model is based upon the one provided by the University of Kent, but the launching of applications via App-V have been slow and not within an acceptable standard. It is thought that the separation of the App-v SQL server from the Management Server may not be an efficient model as trials in NDR were far better, but the model was for SQL and Management on the same server. So, the team were looking to trial this model in NHR hence the new APPVMGMT request.
May 2009
It appears that the ASUS 1000H has been dropped by the manufacturers! We will need to order 200 by the middle of May. We’ve spoken to suppliers XMA and GeTech regarding this dilemma, and why the product has been dropped. They reported back suggesting that consumers preferred the 160 GB HDD to the 40GB SSD. It’s interesting to note that the Dell Mini 10 has just been made available and this only has 8GB SSD – does this reflect the fact that local storage should not be an issue?
In the end, we have ordered 200 white ASUS 1000H. However, these come with standard hard drives, so a further 200 8GB solid state drives (SSD) have also been ordered. We are currently have a configuration issue with the netbook in that, if it is left idle for too long then it will shut down.
Despite our best efforts to get the netbooks to work under Vista (as part of our Vista strategy). We have to concede that we will be using Microsoft XP Fundamentals, as Microsoft XP is clearly the operating system of choice for the Atom processor.
During the monthly Working Group meeting, it was felt that an information/user leaflet would need to be developed which will include specific things that students should be aware of, i.e. the netbook will not work outside Augustine House; if left idle, the netbook will shut down; and issues regarding charging the netbook up and battery life etc.
The User Technology Team continued to develop the Microsoft Terminal Server 2008 along with Microsoft App-V. They have developed a procedure that, once connected to the network, the users will log in and obtain software through application streaming strategies. What this effectively means is that no software will be installed on the terminal server, thus enabling greater flexibility in software delivery (differing versions of the same product) and software development.
The configuration of the App-V software is heavily reliant upon open Firewall ports , which was the problem in April 2009. The system are now working effectively. However, the Eduroam connection still remains a problem as it requires PKI certification. On a positive note, the team confirmed that further applications could be added to the device as the process had gone well and they are confident that the baseline service has been achieved.
