I recently had my primary laptop's hinges break in a nasty accident, so I bought another one and has been using remote desktop (I run vista business) to access my files and programs in that new-pc-transitional-period. What baffles me is, I'm using RDP over a 802.11n connection, and it's still not fluid. When the 2 laptops have a 54mbps link on average, why can't I stream the contents of the desktop without blockiness and lag? Is this normal or am I doing it wrong (tm)?

Cue mandatory "You're an idiot for using anything other than TightVNC" right about...now.

Work machine, don't have much say on what software I can freely install on it, especially networking software. Other than that, WHY is RDP slow, still? It's got 54 Mbps!

We use RDP over the internet here and it's only marginally slower than local access. I would say that when I'm connected via a wireless router, there is a marked difference. Try connecting via a cable and see if that makes a difference (I don't know why/whether it should make a difference, just something to try...)

I don't think it's the wireless. I use RDP all the time to connect from my Vaio and my Macbook to my work desktop without any speed issues at all.

I work everyday on RDP to a development server over a (wired) lan, and also use it frequently at home from laptop to desktop over a 802.11g wireless. Never had any problems with either.

Hmm, other people seem to be faring better than me. In my case, the visual studio 2008 code editor window has a lagged-flicker that makes it damn near impossible to use. What might be wrong in my config?

Make sure you disable all the unnecessary things such as wallpaper, high color, remote sound, themes, etc. (under Options).

It's not that you're using wireless, its most likely that you're using them BOTH with wireless. They both have to communicate the information over the same frequency, so before you're router can start sending the data to one laptop, the laptop sending data has to stop for a second. If you connect the half-dead laptop via an Ethernet cable instead it would probably improve it.

Well, first I'd try a direct cable to the other machine. If that's still slow, the problems not with your wireless.

Check your connection. Try pinging the machine. Test copying a few large files. If the results aren't what you expect, your wireless could be compromised. Are you using WEP?