rdp from desktop to laptop through switch

Hi I have and issue where I am try to connect my desktop to my laptop to allow me to rdp to it through a direct cable connection, while still having a wired internet connection on the desktop that only has one ethernet port. I have a belkin 10/100 8 port switch which I connected to my router. I connected a cable from my desktop and laptop to the switch as well, but the desktop doesn't seem to be able to connect to the laptop through this switch.

I was wondering if I needed some sort of an ethernet splitter in order to be able to connect the desktop and laptop with a cable directly, or if what I am trying to achieve is possible with the setup I have currently?

I have enabled rdp settings on the laptop and have set the IP to a static IP as I read that it might be the way to do it. I am unable to ping the static IP of the laptop from the desktop.

Both machines are on windows 7.

I am quite the networking noob so any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

J. Schei

Posted 2016-09-16T05:21:25.567

Reputation: 3

Answers

Connect router LAN1 to switch

Connect PC to switch

Connect laptop to switch

Set both PC and laptop to automatically obtain an IP address

Enable DHCP server on your router (it probably already is)

Disable firewall on laptop - this is probably the cause.

Kinnectus

Posted 2016-09-16T05:21:25.567

Reputation: 9 411

Ah, I guess the firewall was the issue, although I had previously made an exception for remote desktop, I have now completely disabled it. I can connect now but the rdp session is a little laggy, is it running through the internet and not locally? Is there a way to tell? – J. Schei – 2016-09-16T05:43:44.467

If you're connecting via the internal IP or hostname then it's not via the Internet. If you're getting lag then you may want to set both LAN cards to 100Mbps rather than auto negotiate. If you're on a gigabit LAN then try either 1Gbps or 100Mbps rather than auto negotiate. – Kinnectus – 2016-09-16T05:48:51.863

The ethernet adapters on your pc and laptop – Kinnectus – 2016-09-16T05:53:22.250

I see a bunch of properties in the advanced tab when configuring my network adapter, such as speed & duplex, receive buffers etc. Are these what I am looking for? – J. Schei – 2016-09-16T05:55:10.637

So I set both pcs to 100mbps full duplex and haven't noticed a difference. Maybe a reboot? – J. Schei – 2016-09-16T05:59:00.230

You may be stuck with "laggy" which is a rather subjective term anyway. Bear in mind that the host PC (laptop) will still be running everything it was before RDP and possibly two copies of everything. Run the task manager and look on the performance tab to see how much memory and CPU is being used. What is the make and model of the laptop?

DavisMcCarn

Posted 2016-09-16T05:21:25.567

Reputation: 66

Sorry I should have clarified. When I say laggy I am talking about how I noticed that when dragging graphical windows around on the screen, the movement is choppy and not smooth, it also seems to occur when scrolling through a list for example, basically just graphically laggy. Programs seem to open and perform just as fast as without the rdp however. The cpu usage is idling around 25% (seems slightly high to me) and the ram at about 20%. The laptop is a toshiba with a i7-4600u cpu and 16gb of ram, which I would imagine should be plenty to support a smooth connection. – J. Schei – 2016-09-16T22:26:48.603

If both of the PC's have gigabit NIC's, you would see a marked improvement in replacing your switch with a gigabit model. That would improve the network speed by a factor of 10. – DavisMcCarn – 2016-09-17T12:03:45.893