Name Resolution on VPN

[Tom Edelbrok]

A customer site has a W2K Professional workstation set up to accept incoming
connections as a VPN. We then connect to them from a remote location
successfully, and become a part of their network (ie: we get assigned an IP
address from their local system). We can ping all their machines, map drive
letters to their shares, etc.

However, we can't see their computer names in a browse list of Network
Neighbourhood. Is this because NETBIOS names aren't used in W2K Professional
(ie: it uses DNS to resolve names?). Do we have to have W2K Server (or NT4
Server with WINS) running at the remote end to get name resolution? I don't
like the idea of using a manually entered LMHOSTS or HOSTS file. Perhaps
what we want isn't possible.

Does anyone have any ideas. I thought that I had read some place that when
you have a VPN connection with a Microsoft system that you won't get name
resolution unless you have DNS or WINS at the remote end. Is this true? If
you 'become' part of the remote network then why can't it resolve names the
same as if you are connected by wire to their network directly (broadcasts
don't get routed maybe??).

Thanks for help in advance,
Tom

 

[Bill Grant]

There are two separate problems here - name resolution and browsing.

A VPN connection doesn't carry LAN broadcasts, so you cannot resolve
names by broadcast. If the network is not running DNS or WINS, you will need
to add a HOSTS or LMHOSTS file to the client, with entries for all machines
you want to access by name. (HOSTS file for DNS-style names, LMHOSTS for
Netbios names).

Browsing is a separate problem. If the network you connect to is not a
domain, browsing is almost impossible from a dialup (RAS or VPN). There is
no way for the remote client to find the master browser to get a browse
list.

If the network is a domain, you may be able to get a browse list, but it
isn't easy.

 

[asamol_it]

This is also an issue we are involved with. Our VPN connection if fine but
to have shared folders available to users we have mapped drives to our win2k
server by \\ip-addres\folder name and these connect when the tunnel is up.
Will a logon script work? What is the best method for this...we also have
offline files activated.
Alex

 

[Bill Grant]

No, a logon script doesn't work. Making a VPN connection is not a logon
operation (unless you use the "logon using a dialup connection" option).

You will need to find some other way to trigger your script to run. If
you have a lot of dialup users, you could consider using CMAK to configure
your remote clients. That way you do the config on the server, and the
clients download it at connection time.