Windows XP Remote Desktop connection disappears randomly over WLAN, disturbing remote PC

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[font=verdana, arial, helvetica]I have an extremely annoying problem with the Remote Desktop in WinXP over a WLAN connection.

My Remote Desktop is often in the mood of not keeping its connection properly, and it then has to reconnect for some seconds (1-30 seconds) and during this time some things seem to freeze on the remote computer, most noticably Winamp - which pauses playing during this time.

(The remote computer is an old Dell desktop computer running Winamp playing files from its own hard drive and out through an USB sound card, and I'm sitting at a newer IBM laptop connected via WLAN to a D-Link router wired to the remote computer. Both run WinXP Pro SP2.)

I find it extremely stupid that the programs on the remote computer can freeze due to something that doesn't have to do with them at all, but the main question is why Remote Desktop randomly loses connection in the first place.

The reconnections/freezes really seem to happen at random - Sometimes it's less than a minute between them, often 5-10 minutes, sometimes several hours or a whole day without problems. Sometimes I'm running lots of filesharing programs etc on the remote computer and sometimes I don't, sometimes I reboot more often just to be sure, but I still see no pattern whatsoever. It's sooo frustrating, and it's really killing me!

[/font][font=verdana, arial, helvetica]A perhaps interesting detail is that I've tried to find the same disconnection problem over LAN instead of WLAN, but it never appeared during the hours I tested it. So, it seems to fail just over WLAN.

[/font][font=verdana, arial, helvetica] Btw, it doesn't seem to be a total network disconnection during the freeze, since there is never any indication in any other program on the laptop. I have even tested to browse remote files in the Explorer during the freeze and everything seems normal there. It is just the Remote Desktop connection that fails.

I'm thinking mostly in terms of Services... maybe some important Windows services need to be started on some of the computers in order to make the Remote Desktop connection stable?
There are way too many services and too little hints of which one does what, and when problems arise or configurations are wrong the whole Windows system is user-unfriendly to say the least, so I have no clue which combination of services to start to have a probable stable connection. One thing I know, though, is that the 'Computer Browser' service on my laptop won't start due to some misaligned registry bits and bytes.

Some months ago I installed the new version (6.0) of Remote Desktop from Windows Update, so now it shows a little blue dialogue while reconnecting, otherwise it's the same problem. I was hoping that the dilemma would disappear, but no. (It's actually worse: the new version's window sometimes takes focus by itself when I press ctrl-c och ctrl-v in some other program, showing its reconnection dialogue. Extremely lame. Who would ever want it to do that?)

Can anyone shed some light on my glitching Remote Desktop?

Thanks,
M
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muckshifter

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I find it extremely stupid that the programs on the remote computer can freeze due to something that doesn't have to do with them at all, but the main question is why Remote Desktop randomly loses connection in the first place.
That's easy ... pull the plug on your TV, Microwave oven, digital cordless phone, move away from the Police radios, turn off your Mobile phone, line all copper piping in tinfoil, pull all internal walls down and move closer to the areal.



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muckshifter said:
That's easy ... pull the plug on your TV, Microwave oven, digital cordless phone, move away from the Police radios, turn off your Mobile phone, line all copper piping in tinfoil, pull all internal walls down and move closer to the areal.
Do you ever bother to read a whole problem description?
No... If you ever did, you wouldn't have reached 13,700 posts.
 

muckshifter

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I'm sorry if my snide sarcastic remark offended you ... but I did read all your post ... :wave:


A wireless LAN or WLAN is a wireless local area network, which is the linking of two or more computers without using wires. WLAN utilizes spread-spectrum or OFDM (802.11a) modulation technology based on radio waves to enable communication between devices in a limited area, also known as the basic service set.
... why does your WLAN loose connectivity, sorry again, I suppose I should have been a little more specific and say that all the above can/will/do interfere with a wireless network ... they operate on the same radio waves.

I admit, I know very little on the complexities of Windows & wireless ... :thumb:

Have a nice day. :)



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muckshifter said:
... why does your WLAN loose connectivity
A bit shorter then,

my WLAN stays connected but my Remote Desktop connection breaks.
That is the problem I'm looking for help with.

/M
 

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