RDP File transfer is really slow. Any way to speed it up?

Question

The host is running Windows XP Prof SP3 and the client is running Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64.

So ... I connect to the remote machine with a 15mbps of ADSL. Which ... I guess, got enough downstream. (~1.3 MB/s). The host machine got a 35mbps of upload. Which is again, fast enough to pump the data with max speed.

All I get is like ~320-400 kbps transfer speed. That is really slow. Is there a way to speed it up?

Solution 1

RDP uses a lot of it's bandwidth for screen data and instruction transfer. It's not exactly designed as a file transfer protocol. I'd say 300-400kbps it probably pretty decent for what you're trying to do.

Also, if you're connecting remotely, you probably are running a VPN connection, which takes it's own connection overhead with encryption other protocol requirements.

If you need to transfer a large file between these machines, you'll probably get a much better throughput installing Dropbox on both of them and syncing files that way. http://www.dropbox.com/

Solution 2

Use TeamViewer - it's free and the setup is simple. Set it up on the remote using your RDP connection. I needed a 7Gbyte backup of an SQL database - RDP estimated 10 hours, and looked like it was being optimistic. I cancelled it after 30 minutes, then installed Teamviewer on the remote (about 4 minutes) Teamviewer file transfer (with the RDP connection open the whole time) - 37 minutes. Remember, if teamViewer ever asks if you need it for 'personal only', 'business' or 'both', always answer "personal only" good luck!

Solution 3

I just had the same trouble with RDP transfer. Also, I had trouble setting up a windows share to transfer between windows machines. So, I used the simple and well understood sftp protocol by using a free ssh/sftp server http://www.bitvise.com/ssh-server-download and an sftp/ssh client http://www.bitvise.com/ssh-client-download. I transfered 300MB(megabytes) in 2 minutes.

Comments

[Jim Balter]

That TechNet thread has nothing whatsoever to do with RDP.