ok, here is the deal.

growing up I was always the computer geek...I was writing basic programs that ran on the TRS-80's in my school library when I was in jr high during recess etc.

Life happened, I had to get a job, and baby on the way etc...and I ended up out of computers. I am now starting to get back into them seriously...trying to go back to school, etc etc etc....that is a brief who I am.

Right now I work for a mortgage company, and 90% of our work is done through a connection to a remote terminal server. the other 10% is web sites etc that the server blocks, but I still need access to etc.

problem is that I can establish connections to the server through windows, and whenever I restart my computer, I can access the internet...for about 5 mins...after that...Windows can not detect settings or whatever....but I can still connect to the remote terminal server. I could not figure this out. I tried to upgrade IE...and it told me that the copy of windows on the work computer is not legitimate and I think that is why it is not letting me get to the internet. I downloaded Firefox...and same issues. It is an HP computer...but who knows where the "right" version of windows is...

I have openSuse at home...and just downloaded 10.1 and was thinking that maybe I could replace or dual boot Linux at work, and use it instead...but I dont know if there is an open source solution like Remote Terminal Server...or if that MUST be done through Windows.

Any ideas?

RDP is easy as long as the company you are contracted through is not using the cisco RDP client.

rdesktop or many of the GUI vs of that will do the trick if it is nothing but straight RDP (windows terminal service).

as for the other problems sounds like that computer could use a format reinstall of the OS.

well, I think that is what it needs, would be windows totally reinstalled...
but...no one there has any idea of where the Windows CD's are...no documentation on the computers...

Situation is that it is a mortgage company and there is no "IT" guy. There has been no record of the disks...those have all been taken home buy one person or another. The comptuers...most of them were bought 1 at a time as they hired someone new...etc etc.

The server is just Windows...no Cisco or anything I have been told. They just pay for that service because the company has small offices all over.

I think that I will try to upload openSuse on there and see.

as long as it is the win2k or win2k3 TS (terminal service) then any of the plethora of RDP clients in Linux will work.