Eircom Broadband with PCAnywhere - speed problems

DublinAl

I just found this forum. A happy man I am! Before I write anymore, I'm not the most technical on the comms side of things.

I have a link established using pcanywhere v11.1, to allow teleworking from my house to my wife's workplace. Both machines on XP Prof, both on broadband starter (512k), dynamic addresses both (although they very seldom change), both with Norton security 2004 and both with Cayman 3314 routers. Both are standalone pc's. Both using Ethernet cards for connection.

The speed from my machine (the remote) is appallingly slow, when I load MS Word on her pc (host). There is an unbearable delay when typing, unusable (as slow as a dial-up, in fact slower).

I've done all sorts of tests; so here we go;

1. Using her friend's pc, I got her (over the phone) to dial into the same Host, speed very fast (as if sitting in front of the pc). Her friend doesn't have a netopia router (it's wireless), I do think she uses Eircom Broadband (512k). So host seems to be spot on.

2. My machine (remote) is as fast as expected when surfing the net, about 10 times faster than dial-up when downloading, about 45/50k psec. Speed tests from the net show my line and speed to be as expected. So IE6 seems to be getting what's required out of my set-up.

3. I've reset my router (on more than one occassion). I've re-installed pc anywhere (more than once).

4. Using a laptop (brand new, Pentium IV, xp professional), I installed pc anywhere and the netopia modem and diconnected my own pc. Established a link, still the same, very slow. So my PC speed shouldn't be the problem.

I've set up 2 pinholes on the netopia on the host , NOT on the remote. The remote router has some pinholes set-up for vnc which I'm just setting up.

XP firewall security is off on both pc's.

Has anybody had a similar experience ? I've installed Real VNC but haven't been able to get that working but I haven't spent much time on it. Would anybody recommend VNC over PCAnywhere ? Can I remotely install VNC on the host (via pcanywhere), and then get my better half to launch vnc server and turn off pcanywhere host.

Can pcanywhere and vnc run concurrently on the host ?

Speed is the issue, but speed surfing the net is perfect so i suspect it's something to do with pinholes and pcanywhere set-up. After that I'm lost ?

I've been onto netopia support - no help , no new ideas
I've been onto pcanywhere support - no help, in fact they could barely speak english.

pinged the host and got an average of 39ms return on all 4 packets. Speed same regardless of time of day/night.

.... can't think of anything else relevant.

please, need some help here , as you can see I'm trying a few things and getting nowhere fast. i know this is a very broad question, basically I need to find somebody who had much the same problem and resolved it or someone whose well clued as to what's the best way to resolve this.


thanks in advance
Al

gline

I actually work for symantec tech support, have u tried to configure the Internet securities firewall, deleting all program rules and running a program scan and also allowing pc anywhere straight through, disable that firewall for a minute and see if it speeeds up. Could be a conflict between internt security and your routers firewall. Let me know if this helps

spongebob

PC Anwhere likes the ssh port , port 22 , to be open as well.

M

fatherdougalmag

As an alternative, you could try http://www.logmein.com. I use it from both work and home and it's a great piece of kit. It's free as well.

ressem

For one thing,
you're using Adsl, so your connection is presumably limited to 128 kbit peak transmit speed at the host side.

Ok, PC Anywhere can be pretty slow, even when the host is on a 2meg dedicated line. It helps if the graphics, wallpaper and desktop animations (Display properties\effects\transition effects) on the host are switched down or off, and use as low a resolution as possible.

PC Anywhere, at least older versions have issues with some programs like those based on java swing, or that use controls with hundreds of options (I have had half hour waits to display contents of a combo box). Perhaps hide toolbars that you don't use. Word 2003 has stuff like animated text that should be disabled in Tools/Options/View.

Under Pc Anywhere 10, menu Tools, there's an optimisation wizard that is meant to do this for you.

VNC will run concurrently with PC Anywhere, though logging into both at the same time could cause issues.

You could also try remote desktop on XP Professional, which I've found to be better performance-wise than PC Anywhere. Security wise it's a bit suspect though.

RicardoSmith

ressem wrote:

You could also try remote desktop on XP Professional, which I've found to be better performance-wise than PC Anywhere. Security wise it's a bit suspect though.

What are the security issues?

Ripwave

DublinAl wrote:

Would anybody recommend VNC over PCAnywhere ? Can I remotely install VNC on the host (via pcanywhere), and then get my better half to launch vnc server and turn off pcanywhere host.

It's been some years since I used PCAnyWhere, because it used to be the piggiest piece of software I ever had to support. I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.

But, as you have XP Pro on both machines, you should be using Remote Desktop, which is built in to XP Pro. It's excellent, from both a performance and a control point of view. I've been using various versions of VNC for some time now, but as have replaced older NT4 servers with Win2K and Win2K3 servers, I have been switching from VNC to Terminal Server/Remote Desktop, which is faster, and more flexible.

bricks

On the PC in work you can enable it by doing the following:
right click on 'my computer' and select properties.
Goto the remote tab and eneble remote control from here.
Then you can use the remote desktop connector from the other XP PC.
Startmenu->programs->accessories->communications->remote desktop connector, then just enter your IP in here and away you go.
This should be faster than PCAnywhere.
You may also need to open port 3389 on your firewall if its closed.

ressem

What are the security issues?

The usual with MS. Unified password system, default admin rights on home machines, means that a weak password for local users is the same as applied to remote connections, so have create a specialised locked down account with TS enabled if security concerns you.

http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Windows_Terminal_Services.html

Haven't been any publicised rdp flaws in a while, though there's reports that a rdp patch got left out from a cumultive update this year.

Moriarty

Moved to Windows.

Praetorian

I've found pcanywhere to be brutally slow. Try a remote desktop connection with a nice long password

My Life

I had to get rid of Pc anywhere when I upgraded to Xp, it seemed to be causing huge conflicts that I could`nt resolve with both my security software (Norton) and XP.

Better off using windows....

RicardoSmith

My Life wrote:

I had to get rid of Pc anywhere when I upgraded to Xp, it seemed to be causing huge conflicts that I could`nt resolve with both my security software (Norton) and XP.

Better off using windows....

Better off not using Norton....

DublinAl

Thanks to all for their contributions, I've been out of the country for the last 2 weeks so I'm just catching up. An update to the scenario is that I've installed Radmin (evaluation copy - $30 to buy it). The speed has increased dramtically, to nearly (but not quite) the same as sitting in front of the host pc. Radmin uses different ports but besides this, everything is the same; firewall, pc 's set-up etc. ....vastly improved. So I can only conclude, that there is a conflict between a combination of router/firewall/pcanywhere ....... wow, that WAS a general statement ... I hate giving up on anything but I simply was not getting (pc)anywhere with this.

Symantex support was woeful ... I eventually got through to some Belgian guy, very nice fellow. They allowed me to log onto a test server in their offices ... it was very,very slow ... Eureka I thought, I can re-produce the problem in front of their very eyes ... 1 problem ... there machine was woefully slow aswell when they linked from their machine (as a remote) to the host (wifes' office) ... they then informed me that their test server was very slow normally and we couldn't compare the problem (BTW their server is dublin based ) ... they suggested I try the same from another machine and see if I get the problem ... and that was it !!!!!!! i asked could I log-on to a test server of theirs that had a fast line so as to see if mine was still slow (i.e. to re-inforce that it was something at the remote end at fault) .. .they said this was the only server and line that could be used for checking this problem, seemed understaffed and underequipped !

They didn't charge me for any of this and I do appreciate their efforts but If they had asked for a visa card no. I would've very quickly let them know what I thought.

I was onto netopia .... knowledgeable but basically it's pcanywhere's problem. They said that there was too many variables and baically test on other machines, again.

Eircom .... forget it ..... "Eh, It's, Eh, ... silence .... not our policy to fix problems with 3rd party products ... eh ....... silence " , basically the guy just wanted me to get p**issed off and put the phone down. 3 different people in Eircom, all equally poor.

Anyway, enough bitching .... I get the impression that people are saying XP Terminal Service ... I'll give it a go later on .

BTW Got, VNC working .... very fast
Got Tight VNC working .... faster again
Got Radmin working .... faster again
got PC Anywhere V11 going .... apallingly slow
got PC Anywhere V11.5 (beta) ..... apallingly slow

PC Anywhere's a great product but my combination has triggered some sort of conflict whereby it's slowing things down .... at the price they charge for the product and support you'ld expect conflicts like this to be trapped and reported on.


Useful tips from reading the thread,

Turn-off ..... toolbars in word
Try XP ........ amongst others

Thankx, Y'all again ... I'll let you know how I get on , sorry for going on !

Al

Nuttzz

pc anywhere is rubbish tbh, use gotomypc. you can access your pc from anywhere, just log on to their site and log in, connect to your pc. the site is www.gotomypc.com i have accessed my pc from internet cafes worldwide using this with only about 1 second lag at the worst. No need to modify windows, firewalls etc etc, no need for software to be loaded on to the pc that is accessing the host and it is secure.

DublinAl

Cheers for the suggestion Nutz, It's probably one of the few i haven't tried. But I'll try xp ts first. BTW a 1 second time lag is unbearable if your using word over the link and your typing @ 90 words p/m.

Mac daddy

DublinAl wrote:

(BTW their server is dublin based )

Yep in blanchardstown - ballycoolin if i remember correct

I have you tried to play around with resolution settings at all???

I when i log into work from home using pc anywere it is pretty slow to a bit of lag- drop the reso and it is just about do able.

Thank god for Linux secure shell

DublinAl

I'll try it mcdaddy, after I try the XP TS first. It's no harm in knowing how to do it. If that doesn't work, I'll drop the resolution way down and see what happens. cheers
Al

DublinAl

XP-TS, I got this up and working fairly quickly. Deffo faster than pcanywhere. None of them hold a candle to Radmin though w.r.t. speed. I think I'll stick with this. Although the next thing I'm tring is remote printing, It'll be interesting so see how I get on with that.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed,

Al