This is a list of many avaiable options for remotely administrating a Windows NT system. It is written with UNIX administrators as the primary target audience. The first section describes the basic differences between UNIX and Windows NT in the area of remote administration. The second section describes built-in ways which Windows NT can be remotely administered. The last section lists various third-party solutions for remote control.
On UNIX-based systems, remote administration is fairly simple: due to the inherant remote login ability of UNIX, you telnet to the server in question, and you have (nearly) full access to that server from your remote computer. Given this philosophic design difference between UNIX and Windows NT, some UNIX administrators find it awkward when moving to Windows NT.
Windows has a different philosophy regarding remote login and use. UNIX came from the timesharing model where remote login from dumb (and later more intelligent X) terminals was required.
DOS, Windows, Windows 95, and Windows NT systems all were designed to assume more hardware horsepower on the client system (than a dumb TTY). Most of these are personal operating systems, at least initially they didn't have the concept of logging into the system, nonetheless logging in from anywhere but the "console".
Windows NT is more powerful than DOS, Windows, and Windows 95: it has real multiuser support, in that multiple processes can be running under different user security contexts simultaneously. It still makes the assumption that the main user is going to logon via the console (local keyboard, monitor, and mouse). This philosophic difference aside, Windows NT is multiuser in the concept of client/server computing. Windows NT, along with BackOffice server components, is an SMB server (Server Message Block, the interface which Windows File/Print services use), an RPC server, a SQL server, an SNA server, an Exchange (e-mail) server, etc. And with Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), Windows NT is now an HTTP, FTP, and Gopher server.
However, the design assumption that the administration of Windows NT will have access to the console, has made remote administration more of a challenge. Some components of Windows NT are remotably administrable today; others are not, directly.
Microsoft's solution to this problem is Microsoft Systems Management Server. The next next major version of this product will include the "remote control" ability for Windows NT. This should happen sometime in 1996, read more about it here.
Before Microsoft Systems Management Server is available with this availability, there are various options today:
There are multiple commercial products which add "remote control" support to Windows NT. These products enable 95% of the abilities which most Windows NT administrators require. Most of these work from a Windows NT system, some from Windows 95 (and other) systems. Most of the products target remote use of a Windows NT system, some of them also provide additional multiuser (in the sense of having multiple terminals hanging off a Windows NT server) functionality. This list, in alphabetical order, shows most of the third party remote control solutions available for Windows NT:
If you have feedback or additional resources to add to this document,
please e-mail Lee Fisher.