I'm using X2Go[0] through LAN and it works very well. Just make sure you are using a compatible desktop environment[1]
Also, on LAN can you run it at lossless / no compression? How's the latency on that?
Regarding compression: I've set to the best quality and never had any problems or notable latency.
You should give X2go a try. It's simple to setup up[0].
[0] http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:installation:x2goserver