VPN XP Home how?

Trying to set up a VPN between myself and my son with limited success!
Can anyone point me to a link where there is a guide for doing this?
We seem to be stuck on what IP range to allocate for the VPN itself.
We are both on 192.168.1.x networks, both in the HOME workgroup and we
have actually managed to access each other's folders once but now it
won't work again? If I use the range 192.168.1.200-205 for the VPN,
which I know isn't being used on either network then we can connect
fine but cannot seem to 'see' each other in my network places/entire
network/microsoft windows network/home - although it did work once and
we could transfer data - now it's stopped again and neither of us has
changed anything. Another feature I have discovered is that when this
VPN is active, I can no longer ping my NAS server which is on
192.168.1.2 until I disconnect the VPN. All very confusing and
obviously we are doing something wrong so any help really appreciated.
Router is a Linksys WRT54GS and all correct ports are set to forward
at each end. This must be OK as the connection is made fine afer
username/password is entered.

TIA

cheers,
Len

Len Cuff <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Trying to set up a VPN between myself and my son with limited success!

Hmm. I assume this is something built-in to your routers? If not, do
try OpenVPN.


> We are both on 192.168.1.x networks, both in the HOME workgroup and we
> have actually managed to access each other's folders once but now it
> won't work again?

You *really* ought to get your networks on separate numbering schemes.
Otherwise you'll hit all sorts of problems.


> If I use the range 192.168.1.200-205 for the VPN,
> which I know isn't being used on either network then we can connect
> fine [...]

In that case you must be bridging (which can mean all traffic from your
side is sent to the other, and v.v.). This is *very* inefficient use of
VPN bandwidth.

First, fix one of your networks and then come back here for some (more)
advice :-)

Chris

Chris Davies wrote:
> Len Cuff <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> Trying to set up a VPN between myself and my son with limited
>> success!
>
>> If I use the range 192.168.1.200-205 for the VPN,
>> which I know isn't being used on either network then we can connect
>> fine [...]
>
> In that case you must be bridging (which can mean all traffic from
> your side is sent to the other, and v.v.). This is *very* inefficient
> use of VPN bandwidth.
>

Doesn't this depend on the ethernet switches used and their stored tables?

On Tue, 28 Nov 2006 11:14:05 +0000, Chris Davies
<chris-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Len Cuff <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> Trying to set up a VPN between myself and my son with limited success!
>
>Hmm. I assume this is something built-in to your routers? If not, do
>try OpenVPN.
>
>
>> We are both on 192.168.1.x networks, both in the HOME workgroup and we
>> have actually managed to access each other's folders once but now it
>> won't work again?
>
>You *really* ought to get your networks on separate numbering schemes.
>Otherwise you'll hit all sorts of problems.
>
>
>> If I use the range 192.168.1.200-205 for the VPN,
>> which I know isn't being used on either network then we can connect
>> fine [...]
>
>In that case you must be bridging (which can mean all traffic from your
>side is sent to the other, and v.v.). This is *very* inefficient use of
>VPN bandwidth.
>
>First, fix one of your networks and then come back here for some (more)
>advice :-)
>
>Chris

I had thought that both on the same IP range might cause problems so I
have moved mine to 10.168.1.x. Interestingly thugh everything seems to
think that the netmask should remain at 255.255.255.0 ? It's all
working but I thought Class A networks had a netmask of 255.0.0.0 ?

Haven't had chance to try the VPN yet!

cheers,
Len

On Tue, 28 Nov 2006 11:14:05 +0000, Chris Davies
<chris-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Len Cuff <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> Trying to set up a VPN between myself and my son with limited success!
>
>Hmm. I assume this is something built-in to your routers? If not, do
>try OpenVPN.
>
>
>> We are both on 192.168.1.x networks, both in the HOME workgroup and we
>> have actually managed to access each other's folders once but now it
>> won't work again?
>
>You *really* ought to get your networks on separate numbering schemes.
>Otherwise you'll hit all sorts of problems.
>
>
>> If I use the range 192.168.1.200-205 for the VPN,
>> which I know isn't being used on either network then we can connect
>> fine [...]
>
>In that case you must be bridging (which can mean all traffic from your
>side is sent to the other, and v.v.). This is *very* inefficient use of
>VPN bandwidth.
>
>First, fix one of your networks and then come back here for some (more)
>advice :-)
>
>Chris


Ok I've moved my entire network to 10.168.1.x so no conflicts there.
We have set the IP range for the VPN to 172.16.0.1 - 10.

Connection is fine, we can both connect to each other but we are still
unable to browse each other's shared drives?

cheers,
Len

On Tue, 28 Nov 2006 11:14:05 +0000, Chris Davies
<chris-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Len Cuff <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> Trying to set up a VPN between myself and my son with limited success!
>
>Hmm. I assume this is something built-in to your routers? If not, do
>try OpenVPN.
>
>
>> We are both on 192.168.1.x networks, both in the HOME workgroup and we
>> have actually managed to access each other's folders once but now it
>> won't work again?
>
>You *really* ought to get your networks on separate numbering schemes.
>Otherwise you'll hit all sorts of problems.
>
>
>> If I use the range 192.168.1.200-205 for the VPN,
>> which I know isn't being used on either network then we can connect
>> fine [...]
>
>In that case you must be bridging (which can mean all traffic from your
>side is sent to the other, and v.v.). This is *very* inefficient use of
>VPN bandwidth.
>
>First, fix one of your networks and then come back here for some (more)
>advice :-)
>
>Chris


Chris,
VPN capability is built into XP and that's what we are trying
to use. According to many web pages 'it's a doddle'!! Well not for me!

cheers,
Len

Fred <(E-Mail Removed)0m> wrote:
> Doesn't this depend on the ethernet switches used and their stored tables?

No. They don't come into the equation. The VPN would create a virtual
bridge between the two PCs:

Chris

Len Cuff <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I had thought that both on the same IP range might cause problems so I
> have moved mine to 10.168.1.x.

OK, let's recap:

* Your network is 10.168.1.0/24
* Your son's network is 192.168.1.0/24

Do you want a VPN that routes between these two networks, or a VPN that
simply connects together one machine from each network?

I'm afraid I can't help much with the VPN in Windows XP, but I'm very
happy to help with generalities.


> Interestingly thugh everything seems to
> think that the netmask should remain at 255.255.255.0 ? It's all
> working but I thought Class A networks had a netmask of 255.0.0.0 ?

The netmask simply separates the network number and a host number within
that network. You need to route networks, but all hosts within a network
are bridged and so can see each other directly.

It doesn't really matter what the netmask is, provided it's a sufficient
power of two to hold all hosts on that network. You are correct in
matching 10.0.0.0 to a Class A networ, but these days the Class A-E
networking scheme is pretty much redundant, since otherwise we would have
run out of addressable space several years ago. However, it's convenient
for humans if you stick to one of 8 (255.0.0.0), 16 (255.255.0.0), or 24
(255.255.255.0) when splitting up RFC1918 private address space.

Personally, I think I'd have chosen 192.168.1.0/24 and 192.168.2.0/24,
but 10.168.1.0/24 is equally valid.

Chris

(E-Mail Removed) declared for all the world to hear...
> Connection is fine, we can both connect to each other but we are still
> unable to browse each other's shared drives?

Workgroups both set the same on both machines?
--
Regards
Jon

On Mon, 27 Nov 2006 21:40:03 GMT, Len Cuff <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Trying to set up a VPN between myself and my son with limited success!
>Can anyone point me to a link where there is a guide for doing this?
>We seem to be stuck on what IP range to allocate for the VPN itself.
>We are both on 192.168.1.x networks, both in the HOME workgroup and we
>have actually managed to access each other's folders once but now it
>won't work again? If I use the range 192.168.1.200-205 for the VPN,
>which I know isn't being used on either network then we can connect
>fine but cannot seem to 'see' each other in my network places/entire
>network/microsoft windows network/home - although it did work once and
>we could transfer data - now it's stopped again and neither of us has
>changed anything. Another feature I have discovered is that when this
>VPN is active, I can no longer ping my NAS server which is on
>192.168.1.2 until I disconnect the VPN. All very confusing and
>obviously we are doing something wrong so any help really appreciated.
>Router is a Linksys WRT54GS and all correct ports are set to forward
>at each end. This must be OK as the connection is made fine afer
>username/password is entered.
>
>TIA
>
>cheers,
> Len

Well I finally got it working fine! Once I had put the right address
range each end it dropped in and is working perfectly - better than I
had been told it would on another forum! I was advised that once the
VPN was connected, I would not be able to access the internet as the
VPN would take over as the default route? Well it didn't and I was
browsing quite happily while copying files from my son's mapped
network drive. One niggling thing I have now is that I have to map
drives by IP rather than by name? I have my son's name/IP in the
lmhosts file but if I try to map \\name\music\ it fails yet if I map
\\192.168.1.118\music\ it works! We have also found that we have
actually achieved the whole object of this exercise and that was to
allow him access to my NAS server which is sat on 10.168.1.2 whereas
my PC is on 10.168.1.55. He just maps a drive on his PC to
\\10.168.1.2\disk-0\ and it works a treat! Thanks for all the help and
advice. I suspect it was a combination of both being on the same IP
range and I also uninstalled Zone Alarm as it was causing major
problems when this new network appeared. I may now reinstall it and
see what happens.

TIA


cheers,
Len