Mapped Network Drives not connecting over VPN

[Don Devenney]

I have a rather perplexing issue involving a Vista machine trying to map a
network drive over a VPN. First, the environment:

I have a W2K3 R2 domain - servers fully patched, etc, and all XP SP3
clients. We use Dfs to replicate files between our branch offices and have
been doing so for almost 2 years. It's stable and working well. I have a few
road warriors who connect back into the network via a PPTP VPN (yes, I
know...). After connecting, they run a simple batch file containing Net Use
commands to connect them to their network drives. This usually works.

The issue concerns a user - a former employee, now a contractor - who is
trying to connect into our network and map drives. He's using a Vista
Business machine that is a domain member of the org. he's now working for.
The Net Use command will complete, however he won't be able to "drill down"
in the directory he's mapped to. He gets an access denied error if he tries
to go lower than: \\serverIP\namespace\sharename. (note that I have to use
\\ServerIP as I haven't been able to get name resolution for the domain name
to work over the VPN connection).

However, if he tries to connect to:
\\ServerIP\Data\Sharename, where "Data" is the name of the actual directory
on the server being represented by Dfs, then he can connect and drill down
through his mapped drives.

My questions are: a) Any thoughts as to why he can't drill down once he
gets a drive mapped? He has all the required permissions.
b) Is it safe to let him work in the actual data directory that Dfs is
representing?

Sorry for the long-winded post but I wanted to paint as clear a picture as
possible.

Thanks

Don

 

[Robert L. \(MS-MVP\)]

Using IP when connecting VPN is OK and many people do that. If you do want
to use the name, you may want to setup WINS.

is serverIP is DFS server IP or DC? Posting the result of net view
\\serverIp here may help.

--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com

 

[Don Devenney]

Here's the result of the net view

C:\Windows\system32>net view \\192.168.2.3
Shared resources at \\192.168.2.3


Share name Type Used as Comment

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Data Disk
Documents Disk
NETLOGON Disk Logon server share
PacificSport Disk
SYSVOL Disk Logon server share
The command completed successfully

C:\Windows\system32>_

The server IP in question is the DFS server, which is also a DC

"PacificSport" is the virtual Dfs share. Data is the share containing the
data represented by PacificSport.

Thanks,

d

 

[Robert L. \(MS-MVP\)]

Do you see the sharename and namespace in net share? Or I assume the Data is
namespace and that is why \\ServerIP\Data\Sharename works.

--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com

 

[Don Devenney]

Hi Bob,

\\ServerIP\Data is the actual share. "PacificSport" is the virtual Dfs
share. So to re-cap,

\\serverIP\Data\DesiredFolder works
\\serverIP\PacificSport\DesiredFolder generates either a Network path cannot
be found or access denied error. But only on this Vista machine, which is
why I'm puzzled.

Don