VPN issues

hi all

i set up a VPN to access my home network so i can remote desktop while i am away but cant seem to connect to the VPN while im not on my own network.

i figured i needed to connect to my public IP instead of my local IP but that did not work.

basically i would like to be able to VPN onto my comp while on another wireless network, away from home.

what am i doing wrong? VPN works fine at home, so does remote desktop connection.

please identify what i am doing wrong so that i can learn more about VPN configurations and Remote Desktop usage. Thanks folks!!!

 

My guess is that your Modem or router is not forwarding the traffic to the VPN controller. Did you forward the ports correctly?

The port will more than likely differ depending on what VPN software/hardware you are using. You may want to check the documentation that came with the VPN to see what ports are required.

You can also visit http://www.portforward.com/ http://www.portforward.com/ for port forwarding instructions on many common types of routers and modems. I hope this helps.

 

thanks for the reply danny

the VPN software i am using is the windows XP built in VPN.

as i stated, while at home, i can successfully login to to the VPN and use remote desktop. the trouble is when i am trying to login to the VPN from an outside internet source eg. my girlfriends house.

at home i am using a linksys wrt54gs and have enabled IPSECpassthrough, PPTP passthrough, L2TP passthrough, but have not had to forward any ports.

my thought was that i would be able to access my VPN from any internet source. whats the point if i have to mess with the routers settings when i wont even have access to who ever's router or even wifi that i am connected to away from home?

please correct me, thanks!

 

The point of messing with router settings is that's the ONLY way to make it work. (Well, you could get rid of your router altogether, and hook your computer up directly to the internet, but that's not really a solution at all). Without it, the router will see the packets arriving from the internet, but have no clue where to send them, inside your local network.

So, while at home, point your web-browser at your router (probably 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1), login, find port-forwarding (probably under an 'advanced' section), and tell the router to pass incoming TCP port 1723 packets to the IP address of your computer that you want to use the remote-desktop feature.

Here's what my (rather ancient) linksys settings look like for allowing inbound ssh sessions from the internet to get to my FreeBSD server:


| Service Port Range | Protocol | IP Address |
+--------------------+----------+-------------+
| 22 ~ 22 .......... | Both ... | 192.168.0.2 |
+--------------------+----------+-------------+


You'll have different port# (1723, presumably), and odds are that the computer you want to use the remote-desktop feature on doesn't have a fixed IP address, so you'll probably need to switch that computer to no longer use DHCP for obtaining an IP address.

At any rate, give that a try, and post back if you're still stuck.

-- edited to add:
You will ONLY ever be changing settings on the router in YOUR home! So, if you're at an internet cafe or something, and your home router is all set up as mentioned above, you'll be good to go. (That said, the internet cafe could conceivably have a firewall that will actively prevent you from sending those Windows VPN packets out to the internet, and in that case, all you can do is complain, or go elsewhere).

 

thanks maditude. this certainly clears things up!

so now i know i only have to forward ports on MY home router (thats where the computer i want to access is), so that's what i'll have to do when i get home is forward ports 1723.

i believe thats what i'll need. i would do it from work but...i cant VPN in LOL

will forward ports when im off in...8 hours -_-"

as far as public wifi, i really didnt plan on using public wifi to remote desktop, just used it as an example. most likely situations would be from a friends house. thanks again. i'll chime in once i've done this

 

updates:

after enabling port 1723 on my home router, i am able to connect to the VPN from another internet source but now i can't remote desktop...not sure what to look at now.

i used my public IP to connect through VPN and thought to do the same with the RDT settings but still no go...

 

> as i stated, while at home, i can successfully login to to the VPN and use remote desktop. the trouble is
> when i am trying to login to the VPN from an outside internet source eg. my girlfriends house.

Once the VPN is connected, I would think (have never used Windows VPN or RemoteDesktop!) you would tell RemoteDesktop to connect to the SAME (local) IP address that you do when you are at home.

But if that just doesn't work...

There's other software you can use, of course. One I've been using for many years for tunneling IP traffic through an encrypted connection is SSH. If you don't mind installing some free server software on your home desktop, and some similarly free client software on your laptop, then take a look here:

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/Ssh/RemoteDesktopSSH.html

 

as far as my understanding goes, i thought i had to use my machines local name/ip as well but no go?

i want to be able to get it working using window's built in software because i will be working with IT folks soon and this is so basic to them i'd like to figure it out soon...

anyone else with ideas?

thanks again maditude

 

Once the VPN is connected can you access any other resources such as a shared drive on the home computer? You may also want to try pinging that home IP address just to make sure that the traffic is making it there.

 

no, can't access any shared drives (except my own shared drives) after VPN is connected.

I didnt think to ping it...bah.