Is it feasible to operate GUI applications on a Windows PC over a 150Kbps geostationary satellite link?
The company I work for sometimes operates data-gathering equipment in remote locations. We normally use our own software, with its own fairly compact binary protocols, plus a bit of ssh since the remote OS is Linux. However, for an upcoming project the customer requires a lot of specialist sensor equipment with its own proprietary control applications, manifested as Windows GUIs. I'm told that it will probably be necessary to access these applications from time to time while the equipment is in the field, to check and tweak acquisition settings and suchlike.
Pretty much all my remote access experience is with ssh (or 3270 once upon a time 😉 ) so I have no feel for how good a connection is actually required for GUI work. Is 150Kbps and 700-1400ms latency at all plausible for brief sessions to change settings in familiar software, accepting that the user experience will not be much fun?
In terms of software, I'm aware of Windows's own RDP, various VNC implementations, and NoMachine / nxserver. Which of these (or others I'm not familiar with) are likely to give the most acceptable performance in this scenario? Systems with a third-party hosted component like TeamViewer are strongly dis-preferred unless their low-bandwidth performance is really compelling; we want to keep everything on our own network.
Thanks for your help.
Best Answer
150Kbps is sufficient bandwidth but that latency is going to kill you. Add to that any packet loss and you're asking for a pretty horrible experience.
Teamviewer, etc. (even though it's not preferred) may work better in this scenario but you'd have to test it to see.