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smokysteve

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Error 721 - VPN from XP desktop to Win2k/SBS Server

Hi,
I just tried to set up remote access (VPN) to my server, but have not been successful. Here are the details:

I had my ISP (Megapath) open ports 1723 and 47 on my router (Netopia R7200T with all latest firmware).

From the client side, I created VPN connection to public IP of my router with all default settings.

When I try to connect, it looks like they begin to handshake, but when authenication ("Verifying Userid & Password") it times out ("Error 721 - The remote computer did not respond").

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Steve
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Les Moore
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smokysteve

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Wow, thanks. Does this mean I'm S.O.L for VPN with my current setup?
Only for PPTP VPN. You can still use L2TP/IPSEC...
Thanks -
The server is showing a bunch of available L2TP ports, and I created an L2TP connection on the client side, but it immediately comes back with an error 781 (The connection requires a certificate, and no valid certificate was found...)

Does this mean I need to set up a certificate autority on the server, and if so, will this impact the way I use my network (aside from providing VPN)?
You don't need certificate server. Setup a IPSEC policy on the client to connect to the server..
Here's a good 3-part article that explains how to set it up..

http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1519

Wow - thanks very much.

Two last questions and I'll leave you alone:
- WOuld doing a one-to-one address mapping through the current low-end router to my VPN server allow PPTP to work?
and
- Would upgrading to SBS 2003 provide PPTP access?
I'm not sure if you can do a 1-1 address mapping on your current router, but if you can, that would certainly work, but will open up the server so that you would need a software firewall on it.

It's not a restriction of the server, but a restriction of the router, so upgrading the server won't solve the problem.