Connection to RDP slow locally but not remote

Hello

That does sound strange. There are a lot of things that can affect RDP performance but the answer is not clear based on what we know.

Can you clarify the setup?

RDM -> Windows Host (slow, laggy)
Windows App -> Virtual Desktop (RDM Windows) > Windows Host (good performance)

Where both Windows Host and Virtual Desktop are on the same network.

Is that correct?

Are you able to repeat the second case using RDM instead of Windows App (i.e. connect to the virtual desktop as a jump host), or is it not possible? (this might be the case depending on the authentication setup).

Can you reproduce the problematic case with session logging enabled, and then send the log file to me either by PM or to service@devolutions.net (mentioning this forum thread). It will show the codecs being used and etc, and might give an important clue.

Please let me know if something isn't clear.

Thanks and kind regards,

Hello again

Also - I forgot to ask - what's the server OS and version on the problematic host?

Kind regards,

Your assumptions are correct, yes.

I have simply duplicated the entry for the problematic host in RDM and changed the IP to my desktop and... its still faster using this and then going to the host inside the desktop.

Sent you a PM with the logs

Hello again

Thanks for sending the information through. There are differences in the connection sequence between the two hosts. What is the server OS and version of the problematic host?

How is performance if you connect to the problematic host directly using Windows App?

Thanks and kind regards,

Its a Server 2019 Build 1809.

Yes, connecting directly through Windows App works better.

Hello

A couple of things spring to mind; perhaps it can be an issue with some redirection or otherwise a poorly chosen codec.

For the codec, I'll have to check on my side what gets negotiated with FreeRDP and that version of Windows.

Can you try to disable all the redirections in the "Local Resources" tab and let me know if something is different? Remote Audio = "leave on the remote computer", Remote Audio Recording = "do not record" and disable all the checkboxes in "Local Devices and Resources".

Thanks and kind regards,

Hi Richard,

Ive always redirecting clipboard only and nothing else.

Best Regards
Daniel

Hello

The Windows Server and the Windows 11 host are both on the same network as I understand it; but does your client exist on a different network? Are you connecting over the LAN or WAN?

Thanks and kind regards,

Hello

The Windows Server and the Windows 11 host are both on the same network as I understand it; but does your client exist on a different network? Are you connecting over the LAN or WAN?

Thanks and kind regards,

@Richard Markiewicz
I have the same issue. I’ve been a long-time RDM user, but recently I noticed that RDP performance is extremely sluggish on my MacBook running macOS Sequoia 15.6 with RDM version 6.2.1. I don’t know exactly when it started, but today I began troubleshooting it.

This is not a network problem, because the issue does not occur in other clients (Microsoft Remote Desktop app for macOS, Royal TSX). I also tested the same servers in Windows using the native RDP client, and everything works fine there as well.

The problem seems to affect some servers, but I couldn’t find a clear pattern of why exactly RDM lags while other clients perform normally.

Hi @baxenko

Thanks for your post; the comparison with RoyalTSX is really interesting because we both use the same RDP backend (FreeRDP), so this is a true apple-to-apples comparison (comparing with Windows App is always tricky since it's something of a black box to us).

Is it the case that it's always the same sessions that are laggy? Or - within the same session, one day it's laggy and one day it's fine?

Thanks and kind regards,

Hi @baxenko

Thanks for your post; the comparison with RoyalTSX is really interesting because we both use the same RDP backend (FreeRDP), so this is a true apple-to-apples comparison (comparing with Windows App is always tricky since it's something of a black box to us).

Is it the case that it's always the same sessions that are laggy? Or - within the same session, one day it's laggy and one day it's fine?

Thanks and kind regards,

@Richard Markiewicz
As I said earlier, I did not find any dependencies. I can say that the problem is definitely observed on some servers that use RD Gateway without dependencies on time and sessions, while on servers with direct RDP access, the problem has not been noticed.

When connecting to the server, the response is normal for the first 5 seconds or so, but after 5 seconds, the delay begins to be noticeable.

There are no problems with these same servers in RDM on Windows.

The problem was noticed about a month ago.

Hello

That's interesting. Can you enable session logs like in this KB article, and once you get the problem send me the corresponding log? You can disable the logging again afterwards (it degrades performance).

Thanks and kind regards,

Hello

That's interesting. Can you enable session logs like in this KB article, and once you get the problem send me the corresponding log? You can disable the logging again afterwards (it degrades performance).

Thanks and kind regards,

@Richard Markiewicz sent logs to service@devolutions.net

Hello

Thanks for sending that over, I took a quick initial look and nothing stands out as being obviously wrong.

However I have a couple of thoughts

• Is the lag only on input? For example; if you start an animation or a video playing, and leave the mouse idle; does it play back normally?
• Can you try to choose the "RPC" option in your RDP session > Gateway > Transport? This might not work at all, depending on the RD Gateway version, but it would rule out an issue with websockets.

Thanks and kind regards,

Hello

Thanks for sending that over, I took a quick initial look and nothing stands out as being obviously wrong.

However I have a couple of thoughts

• Is the lag only on input? For example; if you start an animation or a video playing, and leave the mouse idle; does it play back normally?
• Can you try to choose the "RPC" option in your RDP session > Gateway > Transport? This might not work at all, depending on the RD Gateway version, but it would rule out an issue with websockets.

Thanks and kind regards,

@Richard Markiewicz
RDM freezes when selecting RPC and no connection

I launched https://www.testufo.com/

Hello

Thanks for the feedback.

Can you please go to Settings > Types > Remote Desktop (RDP) > Mouse, and enable the option "Limit mouse event polling rate" and tell me if it helps?
Kind regards,

Hello

Thanks for the feedback.

Can you please go to Settings > Types > Remote Desktop (RDP) > Mouse, and enable the option "Limit mouse event polling rate" and tell me if it helps?
Kind regards,

@Richard Markiewicz
It has become much better. What is the technical reason for this?

Hello

I don't like to answer a question with a question, but can I ask what kind of mouse you use?

We've seen this exact issue once before (to my knowledge); the customer was using a mouse like this, connected through one of these. Ultimately I don't think the actual hardware matters, but the important part was the mouse had an extremely high precision and resulted in mouse events being generated at close to 1000Hz (whereas we'd more typically expect something like 150-300Hz).

The volume of input events is simply too high for the websocket transport on certain versions of Microsoft's RD Gateway (I'd consider it a server side bug, there is quite some discussion here).

The workaround the customer found was to use the RCP transport instead of Websocket (not an option for you) or use a different mouse (not preferable).

So we've added this setting that drops the precision of the mouse to a level the RD Gateway transport can handle without lagging.

So why does this work ok in Windows App or RoyalTSX? It's impossible for me to say; but it's likely they're already doing something similar. I suspect that would we should do is always enable this option if we're connected over a Gateway using websockets.

Please, let me know if you have any questions or something isn't clear

Kind regards

@Richard Markiewicz

Thank you for your comprehensive response.

Yes, I also found preliminary information about the issue with the RDG mouse, but the nuance is that the mouse is not connected to my MacBook, and I am working with a trackpad.

Hello

If you're using the built-in trackpad then I can't exactly explain the issue, since we could never reproduce that with the standard trackpad; but it might relate to your trackpad settings.

Either way the result is the same - if limiting the mouse polling rate in RDM works for you, then I would suggest that is the workaround / fix for the problem.

Let me know if you have any other comments or questions!

Kind regards,

This setting actually fixed my issue as well. Thanks everyone!