ArcGIS across VPN network, very slow.

[DavidMedeiros]

Not sure where this belongs, hope I got the right forum.

I'm working for a firm where I access GIS data and .mxd files across a VPN network from one state to another. The "server" is a separate drive on a regular desktop computer that is actively used during the day, it is not a dedicated server but it is a newer machine.

The connection is extremely slow to the point that map redraws will take 30 seconds where they should only take 2 or 3. Is there any basic wisdom on how to set up Arc for use in an environment where multiple users in different offices need to access the same .mxds and data? My feeling is that the server should be a dedicated machine, how important is that? or will it still be slow if using the same VPN connections and networks?

[SolomonPulapkura]

This might be more of a VPN connection speed issue

[MatthewCann]

Hello,

Not sure if this will help,

Approximately 12 months ago I was working for a company as a GIS SDE Administrator, this required a lot of after hours work in both ArcGIS Desktop and Catalogue from home over a VPN, I found it crazy slow,.

The best work around I came up with, although not the most elegant solution, is to RDP in to my workstation in the office (you will need to put a big sticker on it asking people not to turn it off).

I found this works extremely well, because even slow network speeds really don�??t affect the redraw performance because the PC in the office is doing all the work.

Admittedly if you were doing lots of editing it might still be frustrating as there is still a lag, but but if you can swing it RDP into a PC in the office.


Hope this helps

Matt

[PatrickMoulden]

Hello,

Not sure if this will help,

Approximately 12 months ago I was working for a company as a GIS SDE Administrator, this required a lot of after hours work in both ArcGIS Desktop and Catalogue from home over a VPN, I found it crazy slow,.

The best work around I came up with, although not the most elegant solution, is to RDP in to my workstation in the office (you will need to put a big sticker on it asking people not to turn it off).

I found this works extremely well, because even slow network speeds really don�??t affect the redraw performance because the PC in the office is doing all the work.

Admittedly if you were doing lots of editing it might still be frustrating as there is still a lag, but but if you can swing it RDP into a PC in the office.


Hope this helps

Matt

I have come up with a similar solution to this problem at our office where we have a developer who works from home.  In my situation I created a virtual machine on a server that our developer could remote desktop into. This allows the connection to that machine only have to handle the interface while the data is handled directly over our network.

[MichaelVolz]

Personal experience with VPN connections.

In my organization most of the GIS users are connected via a high-speed network, but one office has a VPN connection.  Before ArcGIS v9.3.1 all connections to SDE were service connections.  In the upgrade to ArcGIS v9.3.1, my organization planned to go with direct connections as they were supposed to always be faster than service connections.  After a thorough amount of metric testing, in this scenario with a VPN connection, the service connections were actually twice as fast as the direct connections which had a large impact with large complex datasets when panning and zooming.  As such, we left the service connections only for this office with the VPN connection after the upgrade.

Thus I would definitely suggest going with the alernative of an RDP connection as suggested above.

[MuryadiOey]

What kind of tasks are you trying to perform? do you use ArcCatalog, ArcMap? if so, as other suggested, you can remote to a machine in the same location or you can use thrid party product like Citrix. also you can publish the service to web. there are many ways to deal with this. My experience when I used ArcCatalog, ArcMap from VPN connection, it was sluggish and not reliable. RDP and Citrix helped me to deal with that situation. hope this help.