Improving VPN speed

Slime101

Slime101

Slime101

Permabanned
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
12,841
Location
Lost!
I have a VPN to the office, for file transfers and general server access its ok, however when running our ordering software its diabolically slow, almost un-usable due to lag.

Is there anything i can do to speed it up, the office is on 8mb ADSL (only thing available as its in the sticks) and home is on 10mb cable.
 
Last edited:
You could run the ordering software in a terminal service (Remote Desktop Connection / Services).

This is assuming:
The server is running Windows.
The ordering software is installed and runs runs on the server itself.
Your network guy doesn't mind adding you to the users allowed on the RDP sessions.
 
you're really looking at running it via some kinda of RDP / Citrix session - what's going to kill the VPN is the upload from the office as it will have a really low upload to the internet, so that's the issue.
Either look at upgrading your office bandwidth - though as you say you're in the sticks, so there will be a cost to get a business grade service with a decent upload. Or investigate remote sessions via RDP / Citrix which can be optimized for low bandwidth
 
We are on business grade broadband with 856k or whatever upload, so about 120kb/sec theoretical max! Anything faster starts at £100K+ to lay the fibre so is well out the question.

We have also tried remote desktop, and 3rd party alternatives and found they are just as bad and also tie up the remote machine too.
 
:( ouch - proper in the sticks then.... Move offices?! Have you tried for SDSL to try and get a better upstream? Even a serial circuit of upto 4 mb would be better....
 
I shall investigate SDSL but the monthly cost puts me off, still its a LOT cheaper than a leased line or proper fast conectivity!!

Moving offices is tricky, firstly it costs a fortune and secondly as a primarily mail order company any move of address causes a long and draw out process with royal mail and customers as postal redirects can only be done for a max of 2 years after which it simply disappears into the depths of royal mail never to be seen again.
 
It sounds to me like it may be cheaper and better to just have a computer on-site purely to RDC to. Or if you have one at the other end where you're software is at a terminal server.

Some of our clients tend to do this if they can't afford a terminal server, it does the job without or much less lag.

Ahh just seen you've already tried, is there more than just yourself that VPN/remote in?
 
If SDSL is offputting because of the high monthly costs (and the need to commit to a 12 month contract) then maybe look at a proper bonded ADSL solution.

Go look at AAISP, they do a decent product that would probably help you out.

I'd also recommend looking at RDP, Citrix or some other terminal server sort of setup as they can be made to work very well over low bandwidth links.

I'd be curious to know where this is that requires £100k of engineering works to get a fibre blown in to, we've delivered GigE bearers into muddy fields in the middle of nowhere on short notice for a couple of weeks of an event for significantly less.

I'd maybe suggest you need to look again and perhaps try some other providers, most of them will write off all / most of the excess works if you sign up to a 3/5yr contract too which may be a possibility?
 
morfmedia - its our server, internal every day use so moving it outside the building will be impossible for my staff to use on a daily basis.

Xez - currently just myself that uses remote access but we had intended on allowing other staff/directors to do so as we have very limited space in the office & print room and remote work may be the answer. I shall consider a stand-alone dedicated machine for RDP.

wij - deepest darkest dorset - we enquired once and were quotes such silly numbers i shant bother looking again. It might be worth putting in fibre for a big event, for us as a small business in a remote village we are lucky to have ADSL - when our service goes down it takes days for BT to respond as we are so small and insignifcant they simply dont care if no-one out here has a BB service! I'm not a big fan of 5yr contracts as we know we will have to move at some point in the next 5ish years as even with our proposed extension we will outgrow our premises, and other factors surrounding our location.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions chaps :)
 
Is this connection shared at all for users in the office for internet etc?

It may be worth getting a second line installed if possible that's purely dedicated for remote access. Some of our own sites and our clients have normal business grade ADSL and it doesn't lag at all if the line isn't being used for anything else.
 
Xez said:
Is this connection shared at all for users in the office for internet etc?

It may be worth getting a second line installed if possible that's purely dedicated for remote access. Some of our own sites and our clients have normal business grade ADSL and it doesn't lag at all if the line isn't being used for anything else.
Click to expand...

^^^^ THIS

2nd dedicated line - low cost, ample for the odd remote connection
 
Yes it is used for everyone in the office, except that no-one uses the internet except for getting orders off the website.

Also i'm using the remote access out of normal workign hours so my staff have all gone home by then and the line is idle.
 
I don't understand how it can be slow then...
TS can be cranked right back to reduce bandwidth consumption.

So you're trying to access a local program on a remote machine using Remote Desktop?
Why the hell would it be slow if you've got 800kbit of upload all to yourself?
 
Ive tried it with a VPN and using the program locally and connecting to the server remotely, and also working directly on the server using remote desktop.

No idea why its so laggy - thats why i was asking as its a good fast connection for normal browsing and downloads.
 
Slime101 said:
No idea why its so laggy - thats why i was asking as its a good fast connection for normal browsing and downloads.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming that's in the office rather than via the VPN? It's basically the upload that's killing it. Before my company merged we had a 10mb pipe to the net that we hosted our website out of (in a col-lo dc), the back end pipe to our network was either a 4mb or 6 mb circuit depending on the routing. Circuits were sync so has same up/down and we had about 30/40 users at any one time over it. It got a bit laggy towards 40 but otherwise ok.
 
Assuming Slime101 has his Remote Desktop at sensible settings, it shouldn't be using more than 5KB/s up and down.
A full sync connection will happily push at least 60KB/s upload which should be plenty for this situation.

What's the performance like using the computer on site?
 
Slime101 said:
Ive tried it with a VPN and using the program locally and connecting to the server remotely, and also working directly on the server using remote desktop.

No idea why its so laggy - thats why i was asking as its a good fast connection for normal browsing and downloads.
Click to expand...

Hi Slime101,

Just for clarity, have you tried;
Running the software from the host machine via connected keyboard / monitor / mouse (no rdp/vpn/connections)
Running the software from the another machine in the same office using only rdp (no vpn)
Running the software from the machine hosting the vpn software via rdp only (no vpn).

What is your server architecture like ?. Is the vpn hosting server a different machine to the ordering software server ?

Is the ordering software consistently slow regardless of the time of the day or night ?

Roughly (high level), what does the ordering software do ?

RB
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom