Solved VPN File Sharing

[jhansen965]

Hello,
I have a Windows Vista machine acting as a VPN server. I can connect fine through a Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP computer on another network. But, I have a few problems.

1. Can't ping server by name or public,private ip address
2. CAN'T ACCESS SHARED FILES

Now, yes I have set up all the shared folders security permissions but still when I type into run \\Server-PC , all it gives me is a little X that says Network device could not be found (or something similar to that) And yes my computers name is Server-PC. I have searched many websites and all they told me about is WINS server NETBIOS and the DNS tabs. I am a geek when it comes to computers but I don't get what WINS NETBIOS and the DNS tabs do. Any help solving these issues would be great! Thanks

 

[jhansen965]

I think I have solved it. Anyone out there reading this listen!!!! I think all you have to do is go to ipv6 properties and uncheck use default gateway on remote network. I just read this on the internet and it is the only reasonable answer I could find!

 

[eltrkbrd]

Solved - VPN connects but filesharing not working

jhansen965, thanks for your suggestion.

I was dumbfounded as to why I couldn't access any of the network resources (fileshares or even ping hosts) even though I had successfully created the VPN connection.

I'm surprised Microsoft made it this difficult to setup an Incoming VPN connection in Windows 7.

Being tech savvy myself and having this many difficulties, I can only imagine an average Windows user battling to setup a simple VPN connection.

In my case, I simply wanted to be able to share a Quickbooks file with another user over the VPN so we could both edit the same file instead of having to deal with the old sneaker net routine we've been going through.

Here's what I had to do to get things working in brief:

SOLVED - Setting up a Windows 7 incoming VPN (server) connection & Windows 7 outgoing VPN (client) connection with Windows File Sharing enabled:


It would be great if adding an incoming VPN connection under Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections in Windows 7 was all that was needed. Unfortunately for some reason, Microsoft expects people to jump through several unknown hoops in order to get it working when they could simply have NAT traversal and uPnP enabled to begin with to avoid all the additional setup.

In short, after adding the incoming VPN connection, I had to do the following:

Simply adding the following two port forwarding rules in my router enabled the MS VPN client to connect (before I was getting Error 800 messages):

PPTP TCP Port 1723
PPTP GRE TCP/UDP Ports 47

Unfortunately, I still wasn't able to access any fileshares or even ping any hosts on the VPN for that matter even though I had my file and sharing permissions correct.

See: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/24232-sharing-permissions.html

By following the steps below, I was finally able to access the VPN fileshare ( via the UNC path - \\hostname\sharename ):

On the VPN client, after setting up the connection, go to - Network and Sharing Center | Change Adapter Settings | VPN Connection |Properties | Uncheck IPv6 | IPv4 Properties | Advanced | Uncheck "Use default gateway on remote network"

I hope this winded post helps someone else from spending hours on a task that should only take only 5 minutes tops.

There are much more simple, free alternatives available (Hamachi VPN is no longer free).
For example:
Free VPN Download - Free Remote Access. Comodo Easy VPN for Strong Encryption Software Security

These others looked interesting too although I haven't tried them:
Free P2P VPN software - Wippien.
Downloads
tinc wiki
Gbridge Download
OpenVPN MI GUI - A Windows GUI for the OpenVPN client
NeoRouter - the network revolves around you™
Download Open Source Vyatta Core Releases | Vyatta.org

Thanks again!