If you're having trouble connecting to the remote desktop, there are a  few things you can do that will help our SpiderTech team diagnose and resolve your issue, depending on the symptoms.


Black screen or Popup saying "Reconnecting"


On your local computer, try opening a web browser (any will do). Can you load spidergroup.co.uk or any other website successfully?


If not, It is likely to be your internet connection. Are any other users experiencing in the office experiencing the same symptoms? If so, try restarting any networking equipment you have, and then waiting 5 minutes. If the issue persists, you will need to speak with your ISP (Internet service provider).


If you (or other users) are able to access the internet locally, give our support team a call so that they can carry out more in depth troubleshooting.


Screen goes opaque/window says not responding


This is usually caused by too many resources being used on the server. Make sure no one is doing anything unexpected (running 100's of chrome tabs, or opening many large excel workbooks for instance). If there is nothing obvious, give our support team a call as they can view everything open on the server and determine what is causing the issues.


Delay or "input lag" when moving and clicking mouse or typing


This is normally caused by a slow or unstable internet connection (rather than no internet connection).


To verify this:

  1. On windows - Click the start button on your local computer
  2. Type "CMD" - minus the quotes
  3. Click Command Prompt
  4. On a Mac - Launch the Terminal, found in the Utilities folder of Applications
  5. Once it loads type "ping 8.8.8.8"
  6. You will get the following output:
  7. The highlighted section shows the time taken to send a packet of data to Google's DNS servers and receive it. this example shows a fast, stable connection.
  • Numbers below 10ms are very good
  • Numbers up to 30ms are considered average
  • Numbers between 30ms and 80ms are considered slow
  • Numbers above 80ms are very slow

If the numbers are below 50ms and all within +-5ms of each other then your connection is stable, however if the numbers vary wildly (for example results of 15ms, 600ms, 300ms, 20ms) then your connection is very unstable. You can obtain a larger sample size by typing "ping 8.8.8.8 -t"


If you are suffering from an unstable connection (the technical term for this is high latency), first restart any networking equipment you have, and then wait 5 minutes. If the issue persists, you will need to speak with your ISP (Internet service provider).


If they carry out line tests and report that all is fine, it likely lies within your network and you should speak with your local IT support.




If you are ever unsure of what to check next or get a result that you don't expect, please give our SpiderTech support team a call on 01179330570.