Free tool
Remote desktop connection test
Find out in under half a minute whether your internet line can run a remote desktop smoothly, and which picture setting suits it. Free, no sign-up, nothing to install.
Test your connection
Takes under half a minute and moves about 5 MB. Nothing to install and nothing is saved.
What each picture mode needs
These are the real settings in Nelkira: four settings, with Auto the default from release 0.6.0. Each stream runs at most at these rates, and we suggest a line 1.25times faster than the stream so a busy moment on the screen or on the network does not stall it. Auto’s figure follows the app’s own rule instead: a level counts as fitting a line when its stream is at most 7/10 of the line’s measured speed.
| Mode | Stream | Frame rate | Line we suggest | Data in an hour, at most | Made for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto (the default) | 0.5 to 4 Mbit/s | 10 to 24 a second | 5.8 Mbit/s or more for its most detail; on a slower line it steps down | 1.8 GB | Adjusts to the line. It never uses more data than Balanced unless you choose Sharp. |
| Smooth | 1.2 Mbit/s | 15 a second | 1.5 Mbit/s or more | 0.5 GB | Sized to survive a line that is slow or losing packets. |
| Balanced | 4 Mbit/s | 24 a second | 5 Mbit/s or more | 1.8 GB | A middle setting for ordinary office and home lines. |
| Sharp | 10 Mbit/s | 30 a second | 12.5 Mbit/s or more | 4.5 GB | For reading small text on a good line. |
The hourly figure is the stream rate run for a full hour, a ceiling and not a bill. For Auto it is its top level’s, the same as Balanced’s. Download speed is the one that matters for the picture, and it is the speed of the remote PC’s upload that sets it from the other end.
Reading your results
Round trip
How long a click takes to reach the other end and come back, in milliseconds. Under about 40 feels immediate, up to about 100 is comfortable, and past 200 you will notice the lag.
Jitter
How much that time wobbles from one moment to the next. A steady 80 ms is easier to work through than 30 ms that jumps to 150. Over about 50 ms of wobble, choose Smooth.
Lost requests
Requests that never came back. A few per cent is enough to make a picture stutter, and it is the main thing the Smooth mode is sized to survive.
The thresholds on this page are common rules of thumb, not measurements of any one product.
If the result is not what you hoped
- Use a cable instead of Wi-Fi, or move closer to the router. Wobble and loss are most often a weak wireless signal.
- Pause large downloads, cloud backups and video calls on the same line, then test again.
- Run the test at the other PC too. The picture is sent from there, so its upload speed counts as much as your download.
- In Nelkira, switch the picture to Smooth, the set mode sized for a poor line. From release 0.6.0 the default, Auto, also lowers the picture’s detail when the line is slow, down to 0.5 Mbit/s.
Nelkira is built for exactly these lines: hospital networks, branch offices and shared connections. See how it is used in hospitals and labs, read the features, or download it free for Windows.
Questions people ask first
How does the test work?
Your browser exchanges small requests with Nelkira's server in Mumbai, India. A dozen empty ones time the round trip, three downloads of up to 2 MB and two uploads of up to 1 MB estimate speed. It usually finishes in under half a minute and moves about 5 MB in total.
Is anything saved?
The measuring happens in your browser. Our server answers the requests and counts the bytes of an upload to check its size. Nelkira does not store your results or link them to you. Copy results puts the text on your clipboard and nowhere else.
Why test against nelkira.com and not the PC I want to reach?
Testing the real path needs the other PC, so this measures your end: how fast and steady your own connection is. A session between two PCs goes directly between them when the network allows, and otherwise through the relay, which runs on the same Mumbai server this test uses. The picture is sent from the remote PC, so its upload speed matters as much as your download speed. The slower of the two ends sets the limit.
What do Auto, Smooth, Balanced and Sharp mean?
They are Nelkira's picture settings. Auto, the default from release 0.6.0, adjusts the picture to the connection, between 0.5 Mbit/s at 10 frames a second and 4 Mbit/s at 24. Auto never uses more data than Balanced unless you choose Sharp. Auto runs on the PC you reach, so that PC needs Nelkira 0.6.0 or later. In Nelkira Go and in viewers from before 0.6.0, which have no Auto item, choosing Balanced keeps Auto. Each of the other three is a set level, and its stream runs at most at that rate: Smooth at 1.2 Mbit/s and 15 frames a second, Balanced at 4 Mbit/s and 24, Sharp at 10 Mbit/s and 30. With more than one person connected, a set level can be held lower while another person's line is slow. The table above shows what line each one needs.
Which number matters most?
For clicking and typing, the round trip and how steady it is. For a sharp picture, download speed. Lost requests matter most of all: a line that drops packets is the case Smooth mode is made for, however fast the line is on paper.
Does the test work on a phone?
Yes, in any current browser. On mobile data it uses about 5 MB each time you run it.
How are the verdicts decided?
A mode counts as running well when your measured download speed is at least 1.25 times its stream rate, tight when it only just reaches the stream rate, and too slow below that. The latency wording uses common rules of thumb. They are guidance, not a guarantee, and a test from a browser cannot see everything about a real session.