Creating VPN so I can access network drive? (Full details on thread...)

JohnCleary

Hi folks,
I have a Snap Server 2200 connected to my home network, along with the PC's. To connect to the Snap Server I just map the network drive and it appears as a drive in 'My Computer' - no problem.

I want to create a VPN so I can access the Snap Server from my office with one click.

What I tried to do initially was to create a VPN using TeamViewer (seemed the easy option because of dynamic eircom broadband IP's) but the problem is that it will only let me access 'Shared Folders' on the home PC. I cannot share a drive that is on the network (There is no 'Sharing and Security' option when I right click on the drive) - so that's the easy solution done with.

Can anyone offer any advise here? Taking into consideration that I have a dynamic eircom broadband IP (Both machines are running through an eircom Netopia router)

Just to clarify, at home:
Snap Server connected directly connected to Netopia router (and given an IP)
PC's connected directly to Netopia router

At office:
PC connected directly to Netopia router


Cheers folks

MunsterCycling

To get around the dynamic IPs:

http://zeekox.blogspot.com/2007/05/dyndns-netopia-configuration.html

Setup the account on Dyndns first then follow the advice above.

dolallyoh

I don't know about team viewer but can you ping the snap from the pc whilst vpnned in, do you get a local address?

so can you eg type

\\192.168.1.x\shareonsnap on the pc

and see if it browses it ?

JohnCleary

Hi folks,
Thanks for the info.

I'm making progress, but not totally there.

I managed to successfully create a VPN and connect to it by creating a dyndns.org account, configuring the router at remote site and enabling IP Passthrough (so I connect directly to the PC in question)

So I have the VPN created, but the issue i'm having now is accessing the remote network resources.

I googled this and i'm getting all sorts of conflicting info.

Does anyone know if:
My local PC needs to be on the same Subnet as the remote network? (We're both currently on 255.255.255.0) - It's times like this I wish I could remember half my CCNA learnings!

Thanks a lot folks... nearly there

JohnCleary

Just to add guys, something which I have copped onto which may be causing issue...

On the remote PC, I enabled IP Passthrough on the DSL router (so I could connect to it remotely), so the IP on the remote PC's NIC is:
IP: 86.46.57.92 (eircom IP which is also the WAN IP of the DSL router)
Subnet: 255.0.0.0


When I connect my local PC to the remote PC's VPN server I get the following on the virtual VPN adapter:
IP: 192.168.1.11 (I specified a range from 192.168.1.11 - 192.168.1.20 as the remote local network's IP's range from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.10)
Subnet: 255.255.255.255


Could it be the different subnets causing issue? If I want to be able to connect to the remote PC as far as I know I have to use IP Passthrough because it's behind a DSL firewall... but could be wrong

JohnCleary

Scrap the last post, I guess what's important is...

On the remote PC, following:
IP: 192.168.1.10
Subnet: 255.255.255.255

On local PC, following:
IP: 192.168.1.10
Subnet: 255.255.255.255


From my local PC, I can ping the server fine.

Is the error lying between the remote PC and the remote PC network being on different subnets?

dolallyoh

I'll just wait for an answer before wasting more ink lol

btw I hope your remote pc doesnt have same ip as your own ...

JohnCleary

dolallyoh wrote: »

I'll just wait for an answer before wasting more ink lol

btw I hope your remote pc doesnt have same ip as your own ...

Sorry, sorry... lost track of myself!

I can't ping any pc's on the remote network
Local PC doesn't have the same IP as any of the remote nework PC's

I noticed that I was getting a 773 error when trying to connect to the VPN, the only way I could over-come this was by, on the VPN Server PC setting:
VPN Properties => Networking => TCP/IP => "Specify TCP/IP Address"

Here lies the confusion... I don't know should I keep this bank of IP's (You can choose a range) in the same subnet as the network which i'm trying to connect to

dolallyoh

Do yourself a favour and get a better router with vpn or one that you can put dd-wrt on eg a cisco / linksys one.

JohnCleary

dolallyoh wrote: »

Do yourself a favour and get a better router with vpn or one that you can put dd-wrt on eg a cisco / linksys one.

I was thinking the same myself, cheers for the info

PogMoThoin

dolallyoh wrote: »

Do yourself a favour and get a better router with vpn or one that you can put dd-wrt on eg a cisco / linksys one.

+1, its easy setup on dd-wrt. I have one here I use regularly.

NullZer0

Open VPN access server FTW
http://openvpn.net/index.php/access-server/download-openvpn-as.html

Its free for the first license too!