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VPN Issues

Hi,

I am trying to VPN from my home PC onto a remote work PC, I have successfully added a VPN connection which verifies and logs me on the remote PC, however I am unable to see the network, at home I have a Netgear DG834G Wireless router which I believe is causing my problem, but not being a network bod have tried the obvious but to no avail. The remote machine is running SBS 2003 and my client machine is XP Home, although the PPP adaptor under ipconfig/all shows the remote servers ip address I can’t ping it.

Thanks in advance

Rob Williams

Assuming the connection is established;
1) make sure any software firewalls on the PC/server to which you are connecting are disabled, even if just for testing, you can configure latter
2) the remote and local subnets should be different. If the office uses 192.168.1.x then home should use something else like 192.168.2.x If this is a built in Windows VPN server and client this is not always necessary but recommended

rickyclourenco

is the IP information which you receive from the VPN correct, in terms of IP/Subnet/Gateway?

what is your local LAN numbering verses the VPN LAN numbering? for ex: is the work one 10.10.x.x and home is 192.168.x.x?

what VPN device are you connecting to?

on the Netgear Router at your house, did you check out the config on there? make sure that you are allowing VPN Passthrough

trojan_uk

ASKER

Thanks for replies, as I said not a network bod so thought the best thing to was to upload a screen grab of the ipconfig. DNS Servers and Primary WINS server are the correct ip of the remote machine, maybe this will help.

http://www.whoba.co.uk/ipconfig.gif

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Rob Williams

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rickyclourenco

Who is in charge of VPN management at your company?

The problem is that the IP address you are given (192.168.0.25) is the same as your Gateway (192.168.0.25), the subnet mask is also odd, its 255.255.255.255, which is basically saying that only 1 IP address exists on this network, and its YOURS! it should look more like 255.255.255.0 <-- the '0' implies that it can be ANY number, the 255 indicates that those numbers are static

This problem has to be solved first at the VPN server/device configuration at your company, then if it still does not work, you can try some of the first things I've stated...

Rob Williams

ps- if you wish to post the results of something like ipconfig in the future, you can output the results of any command by using >C:\FolderName\FileName.txt for example:
ipconfig /all >C:\Temp\IPConfig.txt
Then just copy and past the results. Might be easier for you. By the way if ever there is any private information such as you public/Internet IP address you should disguise it.

rickyclourenco

If the IP you are given is the SAME as the Gateway, that is implying that YOUR computer is the GATEWAY....which is isn't...

the Gateway is the last place a packet is sent if it cannot find the IP address you are looking for on the local subnet.....

I also somewhat agree with RobWIll in the fact that you are using the same exact subnet as your company, which COULD cause a problem, but I'm not sure if thats absolutely true.....because if you goto your PPTP connection you created goto Properties --> Networking --> Internet Protocol --> Advanced --> and make sure that "Use Default Gateway on Remote Network" is CHECKED.....it SHOULD go to the default Gateway assigned by your VPN device......but for this case, it would probably be in your best interest to re-number your HOME LAN just to eliminate any problems.....

Rob Williams

rickyclourenco, as odd as it seems, with a software VPN client, the IP of the virtual VPN adapter and it's gateway are almost always the same, and it uses a subnet mask of 255.255.255.255, just the way they work. Indicates all VPN traffic should be forwarded through the virtual adapter/connection.

Rob Williams

rickyclourenco, agree it usually works with the "use default gateway" enabled, that is what I was implying above in "If this is a built in Windows VPN server and client this is not always necessary ". However, since that is enabled by default, and I am assuming it has not been "tinkered" with, I was assuming that was not the issue.

rickyclourenco

I agree with you on that one too RobWill....you get my points any day!

Rob Williams

:-) Thanks Ricky. Just pointing out how these VPN clients are odd as to how they are set up.
--Rob

trojan_uk

ASKER

Thanks guys for your comments,

Robwill you were spot on, I changed the routers ip as suggested and now have access to the remote machine. Thanks a lot for the quick response and help.

All the best

Rob Williams

Thanks trojan_uk, glad to hear it worked for you.

Just a note. If you have any control over the office, and if you have any mobile users, you may want to consider changing the office to a less common subnet to avoid problems down the road, with traveling personnel. The most common ones to avoid are: 192.168.0-2.0, 192.168.100.0, 10.0.0.0
--Rob