Mapping Remote PC with router to routen VPN established.

[Nevio]

Running small LAN in Sydney and small LAN in Europe with Netgear Router to
Router VPN successfully running. All PCs in both sites running Windows XP
Home SP3, Workgroups and no WINS.
In Europe we can Map and access 2 NAS Buffalo devices in Sydney, but we
occasionally we also need access to some of the Sydney's PCs; these we have
never been able to Map. We have attempted using the actual Sydney LAN address
and also the name of the PC needed... no luck.
Can anyone give directions on what we need to setup,change or do.

Thank

Nevio

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I'm not sure what, if anything (simple) will allow visual browsing in this
situation.

However, you should be able to connect to any resource at either end from
the other end, by using the actual IP addresses of the target machines.

For example, in Sydney, the machine you are sitting at may be 192.168.1.25

In Europe, the machine which shares the printer you wish to print to is
192.168.2.8

You should, in Sydney, be able to do start, run, \\192.168.2.8 <enter>

and see the names of shared resources on that machine, and if the printer
were shared as "printer" then

\\192.168.2.1\printer would be the string to use in installing it as a
networked printer.


The subnets MUST be different at the two ends of the VPN connection,

Does this help?

 

[Nevio]

I'm not sure what, if anything (simple) will allow visual browsing in this
situation.

However, you should be able to connect to any resource at either end from
the other end, by using the actual IP addresses of the target machines.

For example, in Sydney, the machine you are sitting at may be 192.168.1.25

In Europe, the machine which shares the printer you wish to print to is
192.168.2.8

You should, in Sydney, be able to do start, run, \\192.168.2.8 <enter>

and see the names of shared resources on that machine, and if the printer
were shared as "printer" then

\\192.168.2.1\printer would be the string to use in installing it as a
networked printer.


The subnets MUST be different at the two ends of the VPN connection,

Does this help?

 

[Nevio]

I'm not sure what, if anything (simple) will allow visual browsing in this
situation.

However, you should be able to connect to any resource at either end from
the other end, by using the actual IP addresses of the target machines.

For example, in Sydney, the machine you are sitting at may be 192.168.1.25

In Europe, the machine which shares the printer you wish to print to is
192.168.2.8

You should, in Sydney, be able to do start, run, \\192.168.2.8 <enter>

and see the names of shared resources on that machine, and if the printer
were shared as "printer" then

\\192.168.2.1\printer would be the string to use in installing it as a
networked printer.


The subnets MUST be different at the two ends of the VPN connection,

Does this help?

Thank Bill,

the two LANs (Australia & Europe) are both on separate sub-net: ie
192.168.0.xx in Australia and 192.168.3.xx in Europe.
From Europe we have always been able to access the 2 NAS and 3 Printers in
Australia and print documents regularly there from Europe.
What I have noticed today is that these 5 devices have the IPs fixed whereas
the PCs use DHCP; could this be part of the access problem. We have always
been able to PING these PCs but that is all.
When using "Ungry Scan Utility" these PCs addresses shows as been used and
active, but no PC name, Workgroup name, MAC address info etc.
Am I on the right problem discovery track with this no fixed address
setting? and if so what do I need to do?

Thank you for your interest and help,

Nevio

 

[Bill Sanderson]

What devices provide DHCP (at both ends)

Is that device set as a DNS server in properties of the VPN connection (at
the other end?)

Typically, this would be the router, and it would be forwarding DNS queries
to the real ISP's DNS. However, it ought also to be able to respond to DNS
queries for the local machines.

 

[Nevio]

What devices provide DHCP (at both ends)

Is that device set as a DNS server in properties of the VPN connection (at
the other end?)

Typically, this would be the router, and it would be forwarding DNS queries
to the real ISP's DNS. However, it ought also to be able to respond to DNS
queries for the local machines.

The VPN tunnel is established between 2 Netgear routers, FVS338 in Australia
and a DG834Gv1 in Europe; its a hardware innitiated VPN tunnel between 2
routers and it's working fine as I previously said except whereas all devices
on both ends can be pinged from the other end, (naturally using their local
LAN IP address) only those devices whose IP is set as static (the 2 NAS
devices and 3 laser printers)
can be actually accessed and used.

I am totaly lost as to why.

Nevio

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Have you tried adding the remote router as a DNS server to the properties of
IP on the VPN connection?

Since this connection is established by the router hardware, I'm not sure
how you would do this, but I'd guess it is possible. Perhaps you could
simply put the LAN IP of the remote router into the DNS settings of your
workstation, for example, and see what happens?

 

[Nevio]

What I have done yesterday as a test, is to set up one PC in our office in
Italy (where I am momentaraly) with a static IP and set its default gataway
and its preffered DNS server address to the address of the router I also
enabled NetBIOS over TCP/IP for that PC.
The PC works just fine and has no problem accessing the internet or getting
email, but unfortunately everyone in our Sydney office is away for consulting
work for the next few days, so until their return I will not be able to check
if these changes will have conceptually resolved the "Mapping" issues.

Thank Bill for your help so far,

Nevio

 

[Bill Sanderson]

If the office in Europe is not large, setting static IPs and configuring DNS
and NetBIOS settings as they are set in the storage appliances that DO work,
might just solve the problem easily.

See what you can spot about the settings on those devices that ARE
browsable, and see whether you can change one of the PC's to match. If that
seems to have no ill effects immediately, write up a plan of address and
other changes for the remaining machines, and once staff in Australia are
able to do some testing, you or the regular staff can change the rest of the
machines.

 

[Nevio]

That is exactly my plan Bill; I will keep you posted on the results as soon
as practicable.