Smooth remote desktop to a Windows machine

[Starfox]

I have a windows machine on my local network that I use for work but it has a so-so keyboard and it's heavy to lug around, so I was hoping to do my work by remoting to it from my 2011 15" MBP - RDP is very slow however, even when connecting both laptops directly using an ethernet cable. Is there some other option to give me a smooth remote-desktop experience over a WiFi-N or gigabit ethernet?

 

[GGJstudios]

I use TeamViewer, which works with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Ubuntu, iPhone, iPad, etc. It's very secure and quite simple to set up and use. It's also free.

 

[balamw]

RDP is very slow however

RDC is the fastest, VNC or TeamViewer are generally less smooth but offer some features RDC (using RDP doesn't).

Just make sure you aren't doing something silly, like running the olde PPC-only version of Remote Desktop Connection before you try something else.

B

 

[Phil A.]

I use RDC all the time both connecting to machines sat next to my Mac on a Gigabit ethernet and to machines 150 miles away connected over ADSL.
I've never had any problems with performance and often spend 8+ hours a day connected to a remote machine over ADSL developing software in Windows. Which version of RDC are you using (the latest is 2.1 AFAIK)

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

Try out CoRD.

 

[balamw]

Try out CoRD.

RDC 2.x > CoRD > RDC 1.x on Intel Macs. (IMHO)

It was a great alternative until Microsoft gave us RDC 2.x.

As Phil A. says, it's generally not a problem for me even with my older (non-Gigabit) Airport Extreme. Something else is wrong.

Another thing to try just for fun. Try RDP under a Boot Camped Windows 7 trial on your Mac. It won't get any faster than that.

B

 

[Matthew9559]

Microsoft Office has a RD client which is what I use. It's great.

 

[AGVirt]

You can also try connecting with Ericom Blaze, a software-based RDP acceleration and compression product that provides improved performance over WANs. Besides delivering higher frame rates and reducing screen freezes and choppiness, Ericom Blaze accelerates RDP performance by up to 25 times, while significantly reducing network bandwidth consumption over low-bandwidth/high latency connections.

Ericom Blaze works with any standard RDP host, including VDI, Terminal Servers and remote physical machines.

You can read more about Blaze and download a free evaluation at:
http://www.ericom.com/EricomBlaze