Citrix MetaFrame is an application which allows a program to be run remotely from a
server. What this means is that a user can sit down at any computer, download a
small piece of software and, through that, access any number of applications
stored on the Algonquin College servers. With the new implementation, in the form of
a Web Interface, this is possible from virtually any PC, anywhere through an already
installed Web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.
The way this works is that there are a group of applications stored on a server at Algonquin
College. This is called the Algonquin College Farm. This "Farm" can then be accessed
from any computer running a Web browser by navigating to the appropriate site and installing
the Citrix MetaFrame plugin. Through this plugin, a user can choose an application to run
and simply click an icon to have the application load on their computer, without ever having
installed the application.
As an added bonus, the application can access files stored locally on the computer,
including mapped shared drives, and it can also access each user's personal N: drives so
that the document can be accessed at any PC in the College or any home PC with the N: drive
mapped.
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