vpn connects but nothing shows

What is all this stuff about VPN.
We've bought a router and client software all by
Netgear. It handles our 12 node peer to peer LAN
great and I can even get it to "connect" and ping from
home with the client software, but it shows "nothing" in
the explorer. No C drive no folders no nothing. I checked
and all of our nodes at work have at least 5 folders that are
shared, but nothing shows. I've asked Netgear but they
don't know why we are having this problem.
Is VPN still a long way from being a reality in
most cases?

On Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:24:21 -0500, "JG" <NoMail@NoSpam> wrote:

>What is all this stuff about VPN.
>We've bought a router and client software all by
>Netgear. It handles our 12 node peer to peer LAN
>great and I can even get it to "connect" and ping from
>home with the client software, but it shows "nothing" in
>the explorer. No C drive no folders no nothing. I checked
>and all of our nodes at work have at least 5 folders that are
>shared, but nothing shows. I've asked Netgear but they
>don't know why we are having this problem.
> Is VPN still a long way from being a reality in
>most cases?

Properly configured, VPNs are running everywhere, on everything. I've used a
number of different servers and clients, through various routers, no problems.

If you're using an MS OS and trying to browse shares through Explorer, and
seeing nothing, it's most likely an improperly configured client. Try enabling
netbios over the VPN tcpip connection, enable LMHOSTS, and load your lmhosts
file with the ip address/system name pairs for all systems in the hosting LAN.

It'd be a tad easier if the LAN was a domain instead of a workgroup, then
you'd only have to identify the domain server in your LMHOSTS file and you'd
be good to go.

www.practicallynetworked.com

>Properly configured, VPNs are running everywhere, on everything. I've used a
>number of different servers and clients, through various routers, no problems.

Well I'm glad for that but not in my case, it took several trys with Netgear's
tech support help just to get the client software configured where it would connect.

>If you're using an MS OS and trying to browse shares through Explorer,
>and seeing nothing, it's most likely an improperly configured client. Try
>enabling netbios over the VPN tcpip connection, enable LMHOSTS, and
>load your lmhosts file with the ip address/system name pairs for all systems
>in the hosting LAN.

Ok I'll check this but I believe I already have Netbios over tcp.
At work we have a static ip router/modem (isp provided) that links into our
LAN Netgear router which serves as a dhcp server for the rest of the lan
so the address of the nodes is subject to change depending on lease times
and machine on/offs. But we can connect up to a given machine by just
plugging in a known ip within the dchp range like 192.168.1.5 etc.
I could hard code each machine with a static ip but it makes it easier with
new machines etc to just let dhcp do it.

>It'd be a tad easier if the LAN was a domain instead of a workgroup, then
>you'd only have to identify the domain server in your LMHOSTS file and you'd
>be good to go.

Could you elaborate a little on this last one. I'm a civil engineering cad draftsman that
was elected Lan setup manager since about 5yrs ago and I have managed to
keep the Lan going with what I've learned but I'm not a network professional.

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 05:50:40 -0500, "JG" <NoMail@NoSpam> wrote:

>
>>Properly configured, VPNs are running everywhere, on everything. I've used a
>>number of different servers and clients, through various routers, no problems.
>
>Well I'm glad for that but not in my case, it took several trys with Netgear's
>tech support help just to get the client software configured where it would connect.
>
>>If you're using an MS OS and trying to browse shares through Explorer,
>>and seeing nothing, it's most likely an improperly configured client. Try
>>enabling netbios over the VPN tcpip connection, enable LMHOSTS, and
>>load your lmhosts file with the ip address/system name pairs for all systems
>>in the hosting LAN.
>
>Ok I'll check this but I believe I already have Netbios over tcp.
>At work we have a static ip router/modem (isp provided) that links into our
>LAN Netgear router which serves as a dhcp server for the rest of the lan
>so the address of the nodes is subject to change depending on lease times
>and machine on/offs. But we can connect up to a given machine by just
>plugging in a known ip within the dchp range like 192.168.1.5 etc.
>I could hard code each machine with a static ip but it makes it easier with
>new machines etc to just let dhcp do it.
>
>>It'd be a tad easier if the LAN was a domain instead of a workgroup, then
>>you'd only have to identify the domain server in your LMHOSTS file and you'd
>>be good to go.
>
>Could you elaborate a little on this last one. I'm a civil engineering cad draftsman that
>was elected Lan setup manager since about 5yrs ago and I have managed to
>keep the Lan going with what I've learned but I'm not a network professional.

With a domain server on your LAN, you could then simply add the appropriate
LMHOSTS entries for the DC, and let it provide services for your VPN client.

For example:

134.111.201.53 corpdc1 #PRE #DOM:CORP
134.111.201.53 "CORP \0x1B" #PRE

These identify the DC name corpdc1 and its address, with the CORP domain name.
The DC would provide the master browser service on behalf of the remote VPN
client, so it wouldn't have to resolve DHCP-assigned addresses on the LAN...