Fastest remote desktop program?

[Antome]

I'm looking for a remote desktop program which processes and sends video and sound in the fastest and most optimised way possible.. anyone tried some out before?

Also, control over resolution and colour output would be nice..
I've never really delved into this sort of thing before

I've been hearing teamviewer is quite good, but can you get better?

 

[bic]

Remote access is tied to your processor and available bandwidth.

RDP (Remote Desktop) is the fastest as far as general usability goes, but home versions of Windows don't host it by default and you need a direct network connection to get to the machine. (A combination of dynamic DNS and port forwarding will accomplish this, but for security's sake I recommend a VPN.) It's not the prettiest solution but it's even usable on dial-up. It can pass audio from the host to the client, and the client can print to the host's printers, but it's not made for high performance videos or gaming.

TeamViewer is probably closer to what you're looking for. Instead of passing just the window draw routines, it basically streams screenshots. If you can see it on the actual monitor, you can see it in TeamViewer. You won't need a separate VPN, since all the authentication and data goes through TeamViewer's matchmaking servers. (They do include a VPN driver so you can share files through Explorer and use other network services. Even Remote Desktop works through TeamViewer VPN!) The drawback is that images take up much more processing power and bandwidth than just window commands do, so you need a good PC and a decent upload speed to make the most of it. (However my piddly 40k DSL upload is fine on the "optimize speed" setting, which is 15 bit color with no compositing.) Forget about gaming or watching videos on TeamViewer unless you have a very good PC and a fast upload connection, but as a workaround you can stream videos using the VPN and VLC Media Player.

 

[Antome]

Considering I'm intending to run this from a portable device, would teamviewer work better on a mid-range computer at 640x480, 'optimize speed'?

 

[bic]

Depends on what you mean by "low end".

Using it to remote control a 600 mhz Pentium 3 Dell GX110 is a laggy experience. A 1 ghz Athlon XP is better, but still noticeable. Once you start getting into more modern stuff (late Pentium 4s on up), the host PC handles the additional load no problem. On my Atom D525 media server, it's nearly as fast as Remote Desktop. (If at all possible I actually just use RDP over TeamViewer's VPN. )

Remote console is no good for gaming. It's fine for showing off ("look my iPhone runs Crysis!"), but it's not something you'll be entirely happy with except for things like LucasArts adventures and Minesweeper. (Plus it will look like crap at the "optimize speed" setting. However, playing LAN-mutliplayer-only games over TeamViewer VPN does work just fine provided both parties are running the game locally.

If you have a second computer on the network, you can see how TeamViewer's raw speed compares to how badly your upload speed gimps it. Enable LAN logins in the Options window, and connect to that PC using its network name (not the long description name, the short WINS name like "DELL7PF96G"). This directly connects the two machines. Play with it for a bit, then disconnect and reconnect using the 9 digit ID number. This will make the data go through TeamViewer's system. You'll probably notice a bit of a difference.

At minimum resolution and quality, you might get 10 FPS if your network connection is up to the task.

 

[WinCamXP]

There's always VNC, a long time ago i couldn't get that to work but back then I didn't know how to port forward, which was probably the problem. There's a lot of VNC servers AND viewers, and from what I've heard different VNC programs can communicate with a server (like RealVNC server and TightVNC viewer) or something, but I'm not sure it works that way with everything. There ARE VNC apps for smartphones, and a long time ago i got it to work on the same network (I couldn't port forward back then, like I said.)

If you're doing something like watching over a Minecraft server console like I would so I can ban or chat from afar, it's fine no mater what. Definitely not playing games, but MAAAAAAYYYYYBEEEEEEEE something old like Doom or Descent, depending on the network speed and computer power. Why you would play Minesweeper over VNC and not use the built-in one (or a phone app that's free), I don't know, but there are usages for remote viewing.

 

[Antome]

tried teamviewer, and framerate definitely doesn't seem to be too much of a problem, however latency in terms of mouse input seems unbearable.. :/

 

[shri]

Try using gosupportnow remote support service. It is easy to use and provides good file transfer speed due to less bandwidth usage; wherein you can send video files to remote computer. Sending files automatically resumes when remote computer Internet connection reconnects.

 

[Prog]

1. Bump.
2. He's trying for remote desktop access, not FTP.
EDIT: If that's a spambot, sorry, it sounded human.