Configuring a Server to allow external clients to dial-in and establish a VPN connection

lots of good articles.


http://www.labmice.net/networking/vpn.htm

I don't really like PPTP.  You will probablyhavebetter luck with straight SecureIP tunneling.  W2k supports SecureIP VPNs, and you can get inexpensive routers that support this as well.  Linksys has one -- get a pair (one for office, one for home).

L2TP can also be used. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/columns/cableguy/cg0801.asp

Thanks for the suggestions. I've chosen PPTP as my protocol. Routing and remote access is setup and configured.

I can establish a connection from home to my work network. However, just before the connection is complete, the dialogue box just sits there trying to authenticate the username and password. After about 40 seconds it says that the connection failed :(

I'm using the correct username and password. This user account also has full dial-in permission.

My work LAN is on 192.168.0.* segment.

My home LAN (on a workgroup) is 192.168.100.*

My work LAN is on an internal domain - say "internaldomain.com" which is run by the Windows 2000 Server primary domain controller.

Any ideas why I can't connect properly?

Thanks :)

What kind of errors is the server logging during a connection attempt?

Ok. If I put our windows 2000 server on the ADSL router DMZ, I can successfully authenticate and connect (where the connectiojn says VPN connection is now connected, etc.). But I still cannot see the server or any user on the LAN at work.

I can ping my own VPN address allocated which is 192.168.0.16. But cannot ping the server on 192.168.0.2!

Where would the errors be logged on the server during a connection attempt?

Lee.

Do you have the client set to use the hosts default gateway??

Hi dimate.

I believe I have tried it both ways. Is it the setting in the VPN connection properties?

Lee.

The router is a D-Link DSL504 with the latest firmware and PPTP enabled. I can make the VPN connection successfully if I put the server on the DMZ which could suggest its the router.

When I remove the DMZ setting and setup port forwarding for PPTP TCP 1723 and 47 (GRE) the connection hangs.

The remote network is found OK, it hangs for about 60 seconds on the winodws dialogue box saying "Verifying Username and Password". Then timesout.

Perhaps the router is not passing GRE packets although it should do.

Any more ideas?

Thanks :)

When using a VPN protocol (all of which provide a form of tunneling), any NAT router has to understand the VPN traffic, becase it is changing packet destinations in the packet headers.  VPN software normally doesn't like this.

I see. What are my options?

The remote VPN server is a Windows 2000 Server thats a Domain Controller running Active Directory and DNS. The ADSL router is as above.

Which method of VPN can be setup in the shortest amount of time and have the best change of success with my hardware and software?

Could someone note the steps to acheive the final result? I've banged my head against the wall for too long now :)

Thanks,

Lee.

I just want to be able to reasonably connect from my Windows 2000 PC from home over a broadband ADSL connection, to my remote Windows 2000 LAN at work. When  connected I want to browse the LAN at work via the Network Neighbourhood icon on my PC at home.

Thanks,

Lee.

I'm going to try a different router.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks so far :)

I woud suggest the Linksys router that has IPSec VPN support.  I forget the model number, but it has a V in it (to distinguish it from its more prletarian, non-VPN buddies)

See here... http://www-tcsn.experts-exchange.com/questions/20691378/How-to-setup-VPN-step-by-step-on-Windows-2000-server.html?query=linksys+vpn&searchType=topic