Slow file transfers in Remote Desktop

[Blue Max]

Our file transfers are slower than "Cold Tar" between our office and home
computers when using Windows Remote Desktop. Does anyone else have this
problem?

The Remote Desktop seems to be snappy until we start working with Windows
Explorer on the host machine. Our file transfers should be lightning fast
given the upper-end computers that are linked, yet move slower than cold
molasses.

Here are a couple of observations and we wonder if they might contribute to
the problem:

FIRST, one oddity appears to be the Remote Desktop method of integrating the
client folders as folders in the host machine. Why not simply list the
client drives and folders as a mapped network resource? Mapped network
resources generally seem to be both quick and efficient. So why try to
integrate the client folders into the host display of "My Computer" as if
they were part of the host?

SECOND, could our slower internet broadband cable upload speeds be a
problem.

THIRD, what can we do to troubleshoot and speed up the file transfers?

Thanks for any help

 

[Paul Johnson]

Our file transfers are slower than "Cold Tar" between our office and home
computers when using Windows Remote Desktop. Does anyone else have this
problem?

Everyone by definition has this problem unless bandwidth is practically
infinite.

FIRST, one oddity appears to be the Remote Desktop method of integrating
the
client folders as folders in the host machine. Why not simply list the
client drives and folders as a mapped network resource? Mapped network
resources generally seem to be both quick and efficient. So why try to
integrate the client folders into the host display of "My Computer" as if
they were part of the host?

Different protocols. RDP is bad for file transfers, SMB is slow but
workable given it's usually used over LANs. SMB also doesn't like to work
past broadcast domains.

SECOND, could our slower internet broadband cable upload speeds be a
problem.

THIRD, what can we do to troubleshoot and speed up the file transfers?

Use a different, more efficient protocol like sftp instead; you might need
an old linux box with a big disk as the file server to do this right.

 

[Blue Max]

Hello Paul,

Thank you for the reply. I guess the this issue surprized us because we can
upload and download large files very quickly to websites on the internet.
In contrast, Remote Desktop (also working over the internet), chokes when
transferring even the smallest files. When you say that everyone
experiences this problem, how slow do you mean? Like for us, does it take
several minutes to even display the remote directories on the host's WinXP
Explorer window, even before initiating a file transfer? Ironically, it
would be much faster so send the needed files as an e-mail attachment, which
doesn't seem logical?

Thanks

******************

 

[Paul Johnson]

Please quote inline as it helps preserve conversation flow.
http://wiki.ursine.ca/Best_Online_Quoting_Practices

Thank you for the reply. I guess the this issue surprized us because we
can upload and download large files very quickly to websites on the
internet. In contrast, Remote Desktop (also working over the internet),
chokes when transferring even the smallest files. When you say that
everyone experiences this problem, how slow do you mean? Like for us,
does it take several minutes to even display the remote directories on the
host's WinXP Explorer window, even before initiating a file transfer?

I don't know if those results are typical, but you're trying to cram a file
over a protocol designed to send KVM data to another host. Comparatively,
RDP tends to drag, lag and show compression artifacts against X11 (the
networked window system of the Unix world). Case in point, I had to work
from home yesterday via RDP and was cursing every minute of it; at work I
regularly have email and a couple other things running on my home system
displayed remotely at my work console using X11 over SSH. X11 over SSH
with compression turned on is way snappier and a lot more secure than your
average RDP connection (the secure part could be fixed by piping it over
SSH with some prepwork but that would probably not help the latency).

Ironically, it would be much faster so send the needed files as an e-mail
attachment, which doesn't seem logical?

Possibly, though SMTP's had a quarter century to work out the kinks and it's
more or less about as good as we're going to get as far as email protocols
are concerned, drawbacks aside. I don't think RDP's got that kind of
lifespan ahead of it given better alternatives from before it's time are
seeing a resurgence given almost every Linux box has some form of X11
implementation. Another thing you might try is sending yourself a file via
Jabber. Jabber lets you sign in to the same account multiple times and you
can choose which instance (resource) you want to communicate with: If you
sign into Jabber on both ends of the remote desktop connection with
different resource names, you can transfer a file from your local machine
to the remote one a lot faster than over RDP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabber
The basic intro to Jabber

http://www.jabber.org/
A popular Jabber server

http://talk.google.com/
You already have Jabber if you have a gmail account; go here for details.

If you have a LiveJournal, check their help section on how to use the Jabber
account they already set up for you.

 

[Blue Max]

Thank you, Paul, for taking the time to help us. Hope Microsoft can
incorporate more effective utilities in the future.

****************************

 

[Paul Johnson]

Please quote inline as it helps preserve conversation flow. Please read
http://wiki.ursine.ca/Best_Online_Quoting_Practices

Thank you, Paul, for taking the time to help us.  Hope Microsoft can
incorporate more effective utilities in the future.

Don't count on it. Microsoft is getting out of the OS business after Vista;
I would consider familiarizing yourself with Linux or MacOS at some point
in the next couple years to prepare.