VPN problem with XP Pro

[ringo919]

I am having a problem with a accessing a small office network using VPN with XP. The office

has 3 desktops and 2 laptops configured the same way:

*Windows XP Pro
*set up in a workgroup
*all users have identical usernames and passwords on all the computers (this has beenconfirmed)
*guest account activated
*linksys cable router- configured the WAN with a static IP address
*RCA cable modem with a static IP address
*VPN configured on one of the computers- this computer is acting as a server (I know this is not technically a server, but is being used for centralized storage and app server). This computer has a static IP address While within the office, all computers can access all other computers on the lan- including applications and files on the computer acting as the server.

The laptops are all set up to connect to the office network via the VPN from outside the office. There is no trouble actually connecting to the network (the server is also acting as the VPN server), but the laptop can not access any of the shares or see any of the resources on the network. When attempting to access a shared drive via the VPN, the following error message is given:

"\\server\share is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.
The network path was not found"

All permissions are set up correctly, as all users who need access to the shares and the computer have full control permissions on the shares.

Also, when attempting to access an application on the server via the VPN, the following error message is given: "The drive or network connection that the shortcut reilly.lnk refers to is unavailable. Make sure the disk is properly inserted or the network resource is available, and then try again."

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. I've been racking my brain for 3 weeks trying to figure out the problem.

[RickieyBoy]

"\\server\share is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.
The network path was not found"


Did you find an answer?

[ringo919]

Nope- I never did find a solution

[RickieyBoy]

you need to run two eithernet cards. your modem runs to the top one which has a stadic ip address the bottom one runs to a network hub or another computer that has a dynamic ip address 192.168.0.1. here is the article
Please let me know if it works for you

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;217766

INTRODUCTION
In certain situations, virtual private networking (VPN) clients may not be able access resources on a Microsoft Windows-based VPN server if the resources that you want to access are stored on a VPN server, and the server only has one network adapter. This article describes two strategies that you can use to configure a VPN server that is running Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 so that VPN clients can gain access to NetBIOS resources across a Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) VPN tunnel or a Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) VPN tunnel.
MORE INFORMATION
When a Windows-based VPN server has only one network adapter, VPN clients may not be able to access resources on the VPN server in certain situations. Typically, VPN clients may experience this issue if the VPN connection is made to the actual IP address of the VPN server. The following is an example of a scenario that demonstrates this issue:• The network adapter on a VPN server is connected to the Internet and the network adapter is assigned an IP address of 157.57.2.5.
• The VPN client connects to the VPN server at 157.57.2.5 by using either PPTP or L2TP.
In this situation, you may not be able to ping the server or view or open shared folders on the server. This issue occurs because of the way that the routing table on a VPN client is processed after a VPN connection is made to the VPN server.
Strategies to gain access to a VPN server that has one network adapter
Strategy 1: Publish the VPN server behind a firewall
When you publish the VPN server behind a firewall, the VPN client can make a VPN connection to the public IP address of the firewall. However, when the VPN client tries to access resources on the internal network that is behind the firewall, the VPN client will try to access the private IP address of the VPN server instead of the IP address that the VPN client used to make the VPN connection.

For example, if the public IP address of the firewall is 157.57.5.5, the VPN client can make a VPN connection to that IP address. However, if the VPN client wants to access resources on the VPN server that is behind the firewall, the VPN client connects to the server at 10.10.0.5 or at 192.168.1.3 instead of at 157.57.5.5.
Strategy 2: Install a second network card and make the VPN server an edge server
Most of the documentation that discusses the configuration and administration of Microsoft Windows-based VPN servers assumes that you have a VPN server that has two network adapters. If you configure the VPN server so that the second network adapter is connected to the private LAN and the other network adapter is connected to the Internet and uses a public IP address, you let VPN clients to communicate to the IP address that is assigned to the network adapter on the private LAN. VPN clients can access resources on the VPN server.

Note Adding a second IP address to the network adapter on a VPN server that has only one network adapter is not the same thing as adding a second network adapter. NETBIOS binds only to the first IP address that is assigned to a network interface. Therefore, adding a second IP address to the network adapter does not resolve the issue.