ReflectionsX problem with remote desktop

[Tim Medford]

We have used ReflectionsX for several years with little or no problems. Connecting to an HPUX box from a windowsXP client.

When we use Windows remote desktop to remote control a windows PC, Reflections won't start on the PC being controlled. Has anyone else run into this problem?

If I turn on Reflections trace the error message from replaying the trace is "Could not contact server at address 10.14.1.59:0.0 (RX33017). According to the online help the IP address is wrong or the server is down. That is the address of the PC being controlled.

Unfortunately I cannot contact WRQ directly because we didn't buy support from them.

Thanks

[Bill Hassell · Accepted solution]

This will never work. Although the remote desktop 'seems' to be a simple session on the remote system, there is an enormous amount of data concerning the remote desktop being exchanged. If you've ever tried to use remote desktop over a modem, you'll understand the issue. ReflectionX must know a *lot* about the resolution and color depth of the local system where it runs. And it will do a lot of work to fit arbitrary windows and graphic objects into the PC's screen.

But when you display a remote screen, only simple applications will function. ReflectionX can't figure out the internal characteristics of the current screen because it doesn't exist on the local system -- it's being emulated and sent to another system. So ReflectionX must give up. You probably find any modern PC game (like Doom) will also fail as a remote desktop application for the same reason. There just isn't a real video card to manipulate on the remote system.