VPN issues, please assist!

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vetonix

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I'm running a MS SBS 2003 server at one of my clients, it's running a Netgear DG834 router which has a VPN link setup between there JHB and CT offices. That link works fine.

Now recently one of the staff members went on maternity leave and I had to configure her notebook so she can access the office server from home, so she got an ADSL line installed at home and I went there to setup another DG834 wireless router and configured a VPN link from her to the office server. I've configured the VPN link identical to the CT - JHB one and it's up and running. I can ping the server from her PC, and vice versa, I can even ping some of the LAN IP's on the office network from her PC. (she is running WinXP Pro on her machine)

But can I browse any of the server shares? Or browse the shares on her pc from the server? Oh hell no, keeps popping up with a "Can't find network path" error. I've configured WINS server and DNS on her machine but nada, just can't get it to see shares! Any suggestions would be welcome as I've run out of ideas and I need to get this VPN link up and running a.s.a.p.:mad:

Thanks
Neville
 
If it is the standard VPN and Netgear setup, then there will be some ports that will still be blocked.
Do you have any firewalls in between?
I assume you are talking about MS VPN?
You are wanting to do some really odd stuff, I must say.
For file sharing make sure file sharing is allowed on the server / pc. Otherwise, make sure tcp ports 135,137,139 and 445 are open firewall/security-wise.
If you have the latest OS's, then just 445 will probably do.
 
I'm using the VPN tunneling feature in the DG834 router and using dyndns to update IP's, so no not MS VPN, why do you fine what I'm trying to do odd?
 
vetonix said:
I'm using the VPN tunneling feature in the DG834 router and using dyndns to update IP's, so no not MS VPN, why do you fine what I'm trying to do odd?
Click to expand...

Is your IP ranges different from the office and the home router?

e.g. 192.168.1.254 (Office router)
192.168.2.254 (Home router)

What tunnel are you running? PPTP, IPSEC, L2TP?

Also check the firewall...
 
hhhmmm, ok. VPN tunneling feature. Def check the firewall setup.
Check if the ports are open and whether you can in fact route correctly (and as HuH indicated above, the IP ranges).

I come from a corporate environment, and doing what you are trying to do will never be allowed. There are specific solutions for this kind of thing, like VPN (Cisco, MS, etc.) into the office network to access office resources.
For instance accessing from office to home, should never be possible. You probably only did this for testing, hopefully.

If you can ping the office server and some desktops, it would indicate routing is fine. I would nail it down to firewall / security settings.

It is possible her pc from home don't have appropriate access? Or her logon user don't have access to the office server (if it is different)?
 
I've had a some problems with the netgears and vpn before. It looked to me that i could only make 1 vpn connection at a time. If its possible, disconnect your vpn to Jo-burg and try this new connection to see if that might be the problem.
 
There are two VPN modes, tunnel and transport. Tunnel mode usually runs from router to router; and transport mode is from client to client. You won't be able to access the laptop if you running tunnel mode, you'll also might have to configure port forwarding on the router
 
if you can ping the machine the shares are on, then I dont think there is a problem with the VPN, unless its a firewall issue.

However browsing drives on a different subnet often gives trouble. Did you try browse directly to the IP?
eg: Start Run \\10.123.4.5
 
in essence, pinging a machine just proves connectivity; that there is a route to a particular subnet.
 
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