VPN connection questions

[James Kennedy]

I setup a VPN server at work on Windows 2000 server and also setup my
firewall to allow access and have setup a VPN connection at home. At home,
it connects fine, but I have a couple of problems/questions: 1) When I'm
connected through VPN to work, my internet connection (DSL) doesn't work
anymore. 2) Once I'm connected to through VPN, how do I access the folders
on my VPN server that are allowed for this user; in other words, I need to
be able to access data in a particular directory on the server from
home--how do I setup the client to do this?

Thanks in advance,

James Kennedy

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Go into the vpn connectoid and in properties/networking/tcp ip/advanced - uncheck use
default gateway on remote network. Keep in mind that you want to secure your vpn
clients as they can be a backdoor into bringing viruses and such into your network.
You can also configure your Remote Access policy/edit profile/IP - ip filters to
restrict what traffic can leave and enter your network and if possible configure your
firewall to accept vpn connections from only authorized IP addresses instead of the
while world.

Browsing the network over a vpn connection can be problematic since browsing the lan
is broadcast based unless you use wins or lmhosts files to find the master browser.
You might instead try to locate resources on the network by using unc as in
\\computername\share and mapping a drive or creating a shortcut that way. If computer
name does not work, then try the IP address of the computer offering the share as in
\\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\share. The link below may be helpful. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;150800

 

[Phillip Windell]

1) When I'm connected through VPN to work, my internet connection (DSL)
doesn't work anymore.

That is normal. The VPN link becomes the "default route" so all traffic goes
through it. This is so that any traffic for machines on the Office network
that isn't in the same subnet of the VPN Box can still be reached
(theoretically). If your Office network is all one subnet, then you can
disable this feature in the connnection's setting on the machine at home by
unchecking the box that says "User Gateway on Remote Network".

2) Once I'm connected to through VPN, how do I access the folders
on my VPN server that are allowed for this user; in other words, I need to
be able to access data in a particular directory on the server from
home--how do I setup the client to do this?

If you haven't provided for a means of " machine naming" such as WINS, then
you must access the machines via the IP# (\\192.168.1.25\sharename). You
will be prompted for credentials since your home machine won't be a Domain
Member nor will it actually be "logged into the Domain" the way your machine
at work are. You will probably have to prefix the username with the domain
name separated by a backslash (mydomain\myusername).

VPN links are far from "screamers", do not expect performance. Don't expect
to see anything in Net'Hood, that takes all kinds of extra work and simply
is not worth it. They always run slower than your internet link due to their
additonal encapsulation over-head. Also since many DSL links have two speeds
(ex. 512kbps download with 256kbps upload) the VPN will always run at the
slower "upload speed".

 

[James Kennedy]

Thanks to Steven and Phillip! It works fine now.

James Kennedy