Is it possible to have a fixed IP for VPN Server?

Hi all.

I'm not a network guy (more on the dev side) and I have an issue with a
client with the VPN server not having the same IP each time the server is
rebooted. We have 3-4 users accessing a Windows 2003 server through VPN and
a shared drive and the mapped drive is done using the VPN Server'S IP address
(cause I didn't know better).

Now, each tiem the server is rebooted (updates or what have you), the VPN
Server IP address changes and all the users freak out because their mapped
drive is no longer valid.

How to avoid that? Is there a way to tell the VPN server to always use the
same IP or is there a way to map the remote network drive so it doesn't use
the IP address of the server?


Thanks a lot for your help,

I am not sure you can assign static IP for VPN server running PPTP. However, you may have two options to fix this issue. 1. Use the RRAS LAN IP. 2. Setup WINS server for VPN name resolution.

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
"Benoit Dubuc" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:E1FD6807-AFB3-410E-884F-(E-Mail Removed)...
Hi all.

I'm not a network guy (more on the dev side) and I have an issue with a
client with the VPN server not having the same IP each time the server is
rebooted. We have 3-4 users accessing a Windows 2003 server through VPN and
a shared drive and the mapped drive is done using the VPN Server'S IP address
(cause I didn't know better).

Now, each tiem the server is rebooted (updates or what have you), the VPN
Server IP address changes and all the users freak out because their mapped
drive is no longer valid.

How to avoid that? Is there a way to tell the VPN server to always use the
same IP or is there a way to map the remote network drive so it doesn't use
the IP address of the server?


Thanks a lot for your help,

Thanks for the help, Robert.

I know what a WINS server is, but I don't know what is the RRAS LAN IP:
where would I find it?

Thanks

"Robert L [MVP - Networking]" wrote:

> I am not sure you can assign static IP for VPN server running PPTP. However, you may have two options to fix this issue. 1. Use the RRAS LAN IP. 2. Setup WINS server for VPN name resolution.
>
> 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
> "Benoit Dubuc" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:E1FD6807-AFB3-410E-884F-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi all.
>
> I'm not a network guy (more on the dev side) and I have an issue with a
> client with the VPN server not having the same IP each time the server is
> rebooted. We have 3-4 users accessing a Windows 2003 server through VPN and
> a shared drive and the mapped drive is done using the VPN Server'S IP address
> (cause I didn't know better).
>
> Now, each tiem the server is rebooted (updates or what have you), the VPN
> Server IP address changes and all the users freak out because their mapped
> drive is no longer valid.
>
> How to avoid that? Is there a way to tell the VPN server to always use the
> same IP or is there a way to map the remote network drive so it doesn't use
> the IP address of the server?
>
>
> Thanks a lot for your help,
>
>
>
>
>
>

On the RRAS server, type ipconfig. That should give you both IP addresses, for the LAN (hope you use static IP) and another is PPTP IP.

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
"Benoit Dubuc" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:4283EC28-FDCD-4619-A192-(E-Mail Removed)...
Thanks for the help, Robert.

I know what a WINS server is, but I don't know what is the RRAS LAN IP:
where would I find it?

Thanks

"Robert L [MVP - Networking]" wrote:

> I am not sure you can assign static IP for VPN server running PPTP. However, you may have two options to fix this issue. 1. Use the RRAS LAN IP. 2. Setup WINS server for VPN name resolution.
>
> 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
> "Benoit Dubuc" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:E1FD6807-AFB3-410E-884F-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi all.
>
> I'm not a network guy (more on the dev side) and I have an issue with a
> client with the VPN server not having the same IP each time the server is
> rebooted. We have 3-4 users accessing a Windows 2003 server through VPN and
> a shared drive and the mapped drive is done using the VPN Server'S IP address
> (cause I didn't know better).
>
> Now, each tiem the server is rebooted (updates or what have you), the VPN
> Server IP address changes and all the users freak out because their mapped
> drive is no longer valid.
>
> How to avoid that? Is there a way to tell the VPN server to always use the
> same IP or is there a way to map the remote network drive so it doesn't use
> the IP address of the server?
>
>
> Thanks a lot for your help,
>
>
>
>
>
>

\\Isn't that IP the one that changes all the time?

Anyway, I installed the WINS server on the server box and now, when I type
in "\\servername\share" in the run prompt, I get the error message "No
Network provider accepted the given network path". If I try to map a network
drive, I get "The drive could not be mapped because no network was found".

WINS was installed with the defaults, I didn't touch anything after the setup.

Your help is greatly appreciated.



"Robert L [MVP - Networking]" wrote:

> On the RRAS server, type ipconfig. That should give you both IP addresses, for the LAN (hope you use static IP) and another is PPTP IP.
>
> 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
> "Benoit Dubuc" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:4283EC28-FDCD-4619-A192-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks for the help, Robert.
>
> I know what a WINS server is, but I don't know what is the RRAS LAN IP:
> where would I find it?
>
> Thanks
>
> "Robert L [MVP - Networking]" wrote:
>
> > I am not sure you can assign static IP for VPN server running PPTP. However, you may have two options to fix this issue. 1. Use the RRAS LAN IP. 2. Setup WINS server for VPN name resolution.
> >
> > 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
> > "Benoit Dubuc" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:E1FD6807-AFB3-410E-884F-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hi all.
> >
> > I'm not a network guy (more on the dev side) and I have an issue with a
> > client with the VPN server not having the same IP each time the server is
> > rebooted. We have 3-4 users accessing a Windows 2003 server through VPN and
> > a shared drive and the mapped drive is done using the VPN Server'S IP address
> > (cause I didn't know better).
> >
> > Now, each tiem the server is rebooted (updates or what have you), the VPN
> > Server IP address changes and all the users freak out because their mapped
> > drive is no longer valid.
> >
> > How to avoid that? Is there a way to tell the VPN server to always use the
> > same IP or is there a way to map the remote network drive so it doesn't use
> > the IP address of the server?
> >
> >
> > Thanks a lot for your help,
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >