Vpn

[stuckinthesticks]

Hi


Bit of a noob at all this stuff and wondering if all you wonderful techies out there can help us.....

We have 2 sites (1/2 mile apart), both F2S ADSLmax, each with a single static IP from F2S (bless 'em)

1) Home/Office - 4 pcs behind vigor 2600 router

2) Workshop - 1 pc behind billion 7404 or netgear 834v2 router


Everything fine and hunckydorey, but we want to do a bit more .....
We want to connect these 2 together (VPN ?) so's we can share and hold personal/business data all in one place. Don't want to keep physically moving data between the 2 sites. Main fileserver is at site 1.

No dhcp anywhere - all machines have internal IPs hardcoded (nice and simple for such a small setup). Everything now windoze


Anyone point us in the right direction to network the 2 sites (hopefully fairly securely)??????

+ Is it at all easy for us stuckinthesticks kind of folk?



MANY THANKX

[kmount]

Hi,

I'm not experienced in the use of either router, but it should be possible.

I'll look at work tomorrow the manuals for each router and see if its possible without too much hassle.

[stuckinthesticks]

Chaz

As I have seen elsewhere on these forums - one helpfull fellow


I only hope that I may not be as big a dunce as you have yet met here. I really don't know what to do.

I hoped, fatuously no doubt, that when both sites had a net connection via F2S I could jigger the routers to allow one site to read/write to the other's pcs (as long as local permissions allowed of course), and maybe even share the network printer at site1 - that would be grand indeed.

I hope it is nearly as simple as that. But, many thanks for your endevours.

[aubs]

the netgear will certainly do it, I aren't using mine at the mo so cant tell u the exact settings - but they are all there in the router admin page.

[kmount]

What OS does your main file server run?

If they were two Vigor's from what I can see, they would talk and it would all work seemlessly but I'm honestly not sure otherwise.

The 834 supports VPN passthrough which would to me mean that it is quite happy to let VPN traffic come through to the 'vpn server'.

It should be possible to do, but it may require a bit of tweaking on the 'serverside'.

My dads workplace has a vpn and when he uses it he just logs onto my wireless at home, runs the vpn connector and then everything is tunnelled through to them regardless of my router being pathetic and dead.

By using two routers I guess it would make it seemless.

I'm not an expert on this though, sorry.

[stuckinthesticks]

Thanks both


We shall mainly be using it when in our workshop (Site 2 above)

Site 2 in win2k with either the billion or the netgear


From there would would be read/write/update files behind the vigor at Site 1 above.
Site 1 is either win2k or xp. Most of our shared data is on an USB external WesternDigital HDD attached to the one xp machine. From any of the 4 pcs within site 1 we have the correct permissions to access our files.

Me and the Wife live here, but our daughter, son-in-law and 3 granddaughters are also here regularly (only live 1 mile away in the next village) and do their own thing as well. So they equally have their files etc that they work on.

Eldest Granddaughter also helps in the workshop with us (no, not child slave labour!!! ) and will also need to access her files.





What's a vpn connector?

[stuckinthesticks]

Chaz

Just reread your note

Does that mean then that the router would not itsself be the vpn server?
Do any need any extra software, or windoze features?
(Am really just getting to grips with windoze for peace in the family; I always used to PLAY with linux through choice and cost, so no expert here either)


I thought that if I could let the router itself at site 2 (workshop) act as a kind of vpn client (as it were) and the router at site 1 (home/office) as a vpn server then the internal network at site 1 would allow users locally (as at present) do their thing with their files but in addition would also allow the remote user (site 1) to act just as if they were really within site 1 (kind of pretend as it were)


I also need to understand the terms vpn passthrough and vpn tunnelling me thinks and recognise the difference.

I ought to add perhaps that site 1 has no client/server setup. All machines have all accounts for all users setup on them individually.



Does my drivelling make any sense?

[kmount]

Yes, complete sense.

I was hoping it could work with effectively the two routers being endpoints so that it was seemless, but I'm having one of those days at work and am struggling to find time to read.

[stuckinthesticks]

Chaz


We are on the same wavelength .... I also hoped that the routers would do all the work and allow the two sites to act as one as it were


Anyway, you imrove your day and enjoy it (sun shining with you? hope so - very damp and grey here amongst the Welsh mountains).


No hurry


Thankx

[kmount]

Chucking it down here in the East Midlands. No children, so not too terrible mind you.

[mrjones]

As Chaz says, if they were 2 Vigor's you could do it, indeed i;ve been doing just this with 2 2600s for a while.

http://www.draytek.co.uk/support/vpn_setup.html

Even 3 sites can be connected together if you get the routing right .

What's the server running? Does it use XP or Windows or Windows 2000/2003?

BTW, just had a quick look on ebay and the 2600s are quite cheap now
http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/sear...gor&category0=

Cheers


-------
Edit:
just did a quick search and found someone's done a Billion 7402 to a Draytek 2500 VPN OK. not the same, but similar
http://www.billion.com.au/forums/ind...howtopic=5987#

[stuckinthesticks]

Originally Posted by mrjones

What's the server running? Does it use XP or Windows or Windows 2000/2003?

Thanks MrJones

No "server"

At both sites all users set up on all machines they might use. All our shared data runs on a usb WD HDD with permisssions set for us all.


CHEAP and Easy solution for a small household (also I'm only just sort of getting to grips with windoze). And, as I said I haven't a clue where to start or waht to do with vpn --- the idea started to stop us having to transfer data between the 2 sites on cd every day.





Anyway - site 2 (remote) now running. The vigor router at site 1 now sees an incomming vpn connection:-

1
( site2 ) PPTP/MPPE 83.67.xx.xx 192.168.0.0/24 1694 3 1579 3 2 : 54 : 41


But, it don't do anything, Seems that it accepts the incomming vpn and the does nothing with it --- I've lost the plot totally somewhere! Any ideas?

[mrjones]

what are the IP ranges of the 2 sites?
They need to be different for this to work.
ie.
site 1 192.168.0.0/24
site 2 192.168.1.0/24
or something like that

[stuckinthesticks]

Ha - Just got there

Site 1 is range 192.168.1.0 (I don't know what the /24 is)
Site 2 is in now in the range 192.168.0.0


Reconnected, and when I do the incomming vpn computer is translated into IP 192.168.1.202 on site 1 by the vigor router, I guess correctly.

From site 2, I can now ping/tracert the internal IPs in site1. I can also logon onto either router from their internal ip addresses.


That's a way forward. - But I can't see the computers or their data files from within windows.

This is now the vigor's VPN connection status
1
( site2 ) PPTP/MPPE 83.67.xx.xx 192.168.1.202/32 646 3 605 3 1 : 16 : 14




So, I'm guessing that the network is most of the way there. Just got to out fog windows, as said a real trainee there.

[mrjones]

ah, so you're just connecting 1 computer via vpn to the draytek, should have read your 1st post more closely sorry.

you have to do \\192.168.1.?\sharename to connect to the share.

[stuckinthesticks]

Is this from with add network place?


I am now at site1 (home).

But there are some shares on the computer in the workshop. It used to be at home and was just take down there with no changes except for the network / ip config above.

If I try to add (Add Network Place) as \\192.168.1.202 or \\192.168.1.202\thelawpack it returns an error saying "the network path was not found".

[mrjones]

try mapping a network drive in Explorer

Tools, Map Network Drive
choose a space drive letter, then enter \\192.168.1.202\thelawpack as the folder.

ah, can you ping the machines at the other site once the vpn is connected?

[stuckinthesticks]

Yep, I can ping/tracert all the machines from either site when vpn connected (now the ip ranges are set as you said).



I shall try explorer in a mo



Thankx VM for all your efforts here - much appreciated

[kmount]

I'm sorry btw for not being around much on this front.

[stuckinthesticks]

Chaz


Hi there - trust weekend was excellent and still not raining children?




Here's where we are>>>>

1) I configured vigor as per link in mrjones's first response.

2) I reconfigured lan ip ranges (where necessary) as exampled in his next post.

3) I created network vpn dial in (control panel / Network and Dial-up Connections / make new connection / vpn option) on the sole (win2k) machine at site2 (login details set in 1 above). Vigor router creates virtual network for the vpn computer when it connects.

4) I now have a network level vpn connection. Nice and stable. I can tracert/ping all ips on both networks from either site. I can logonto both routers via a browser from either site.

5) Now trying via windows explorer on pc at site 2 to map network drive(s) to existing share(s) on pcs at site1. Most importantly, the one windows xp machine at site 1 as the usb W.D. HDD is attached to this pc.

6) This errors - windows is looking for a logon server

7) More work, but definite progress --- Hats off and virtual pints to both yourself and mrjones (Seren)

[mrjones]

are the machines in the same network/workgroup?

have you been able to connect to the network shares when the machines have been on the same physical network? if they've ever been on the same network of course.

[stuckinthesticks]

Originally Posted by mrjones

are the machines in the same network/workgroup?

have you been able to connect to the network shares when the machines have been on the same physical network? if they've ever been on the same network of course.

All the machines on the lan at site1 work correctly and all permissions work for all users.

When the win2k pc at site2 connects via vpn and attempts to map a network drive it seems to be faced by want of a logon server.

This pc was fine when directly connected at site1. (I just moved it to site 2 and reconfigured networking along the lines of your earlier post, otherwise it remains unchanged)




As an aside, all machines have 1 network card. I mention this as somewhere along the way to getting vpn working it seemed that windows was looking for 2. I might be wrong here.

[mrjones]

Are the shares anonymous or do you have them shared as a specific user?

Have you tried entering a username & password of an account which exists on the XP machine sharing the files?

[kmount]

Enable the guest account on both machines to see if this cures the problem, and also make sure the firewall is configured to allow connections.

[stuckinthesticks]

Originally Posted by mrjones

Are the shares anonymous or do you have them shared as a specific user?

Have you tried entering a username & password of an account which exists on the XP machine sharing the files?

Shares still work within site1 - but now set as anon.


Never get the option to enter username/password, just get the error message when trying to map network drive that logon server fails.




Chaz - also allowed guest accounts, but remains unaltered as above.