Connected, can't browse, been through forum

[Techserv]

I have a client in a wierd situation and it's left me a little frazzled as to whether I am going to be able to get this done or not.

1- Merrill Lynch Brokers don't spend money
2- The connection is cable to cable same provider
3- Client is Win 98SE, RAS is Win 2K with all available MS updates.
4- RAS is not the file server of the network, long story don't ask
5- Client connects, logs in, mapped drives for when she is in the office attempt to reconnect and fail
6- Client can ping all network IP's and can see the machines in network neighborhood
7- I've created an LMHOSTS file as best my newbie talent would allow based off the example found on the Win 2K machine. I have no reason to believe that I really did this correctly as I was really just announcing IP addy's and the computer name they belonged to.
8- The client needs the mapped drives in order to run the database program the group uses on a constant basis. I'm assuming this issue can probably be fixed via DNS or WINS; however, my knowledge of how to properly configure either doesn't exist and not having a server OS on the network may be a major problem for me.

Basically I need the client able to log into the RAS, and tunnel to the server which is a Win 98SE machine as well so she can access the DB files. The RAS is a dual NIC machine as the group shares an internet connection. If someone can make heads or tails of the pea soup I've just splattered here and tell me what I missed I would GREATLY appreciate it.

 

[franklin1232]

It seems like you have made your VPN connection. Are you using DHCP to assign the VPN IP? If so then you should configure a DNS server for the VPN connections. If you can ping the servers IP address then you should be able to map a drive. \\Server_IP\Share_Name will get you there. You don't need the server name to map a drive. If you get an error what is it exactly? Also try pinging the server name. If you can't then you LMHosts file probally isn't working or it's not being used because of some other method of name resolution. (LMHosts usually work)

You are right DNS would fix the problem, but you don't have a server so you don't have DHCP or DNS. How can Merril Lynch be so big and such a crappy setup. What about security. Breaking in to a unmonitored Win2k RRAS VPN box isn't much of a challenge. There are a lot of script kiddies running around on cable networks. I get four or more a week from computers on or local cable providers network.

 

[Techserv]

I have the Win2K box assigning an IP to the connection that fits the subnet upon connection. I have verified the IP via ipconfig we are straight on that. I haven't tried pinging the server name since we introduced the LMHosts file but that was only because she wasn't able to connect as it was.

She uses the same laptop at work and at home...I'm already breaking a few rules just trying to get her to use two different cable modems in two different situations with two different NICs in her client machine. The fact I got that to work seemed like a minor miracle to me. This network is not a Merrill Lynch company network, there network stuff seems to be pretty lacking so we hire in to add a secondary network that fills in the missing pieces.

I'm not sure if I can write a login script for her to simply map drives via \\server_ip\share or not as this isn't a server machine and even if I could I don't know how. Basically I'm saying I'm in over what my experience can accomadate. I will show you what my LMHosts file looks like and maybe you can tell me if I am missing something.

192.168.0.1 Kitty #PRE
192.168.0.2 Laura #PRE
192.168.0.3 Kevin #PRE
192.168.0.8 Server #PRE


This file has made the machines listed in it readily viewable in network neighborhood, just not browsable. This is why I figure I am missing something.

If I had my way the maps that she uses daily in the office would simply connect when she logs into the VPN. They try to connect automatically when she logs in anyway. Example would be L:= \\server\database. When she VPN's in and gets her connection L: tries to map again. If I could find a way to just let it map this problem is solved. She would have all the resources she needs to do everything necassary.

I thank you for trying to help and I hope this info helps you to help me a bit more. But I do appreciate any help given!

 

[franklin1232]

So she is at home on her cable modem. She fires up the VPN connection and successfully connects to the public IP of your Windows 2K pro machine. You can now ping all ips on the network that you connected to using the VPN. You can see the machines on the VPN network but you can't browse their shares. If you go to the run line and type
Net Use L: \\server_ip\Share_Name it returns and error? What is the error?

As far as the LMHosts file it looks fine. I don't know if ARP works on win 98 but since you chose to preload you would see them in your ARP Cache.

As far as the login script is concerned you can set a login script on you win2k box. Or you can right a batch file on the client that makes the VPN connect and then maps drives. If you want I can dig up a batch file I used to do just that.

It may help if you send me your RAS config. You might not be routing all the proper packet types and ports.

 

[Techserv]

Latest Update-

Well we finally did it. We aren't homefree yet but we can at least see the finish line. It appears that if I use the 'route add' function I can mysteriously browse the network. I have to route to the machine with the LMHosts file on it. I can also use the 'net use' command to not only map but in essence create the same functionality as 'route add' does.

Here is where things get funny. I had the client log into the VPN and let her first map drive fail to connect. At that point I had her run a batch file I wrote to run a 'route add' as well as a 'net use' just to be sure. However, it appears that the machine does not want to run the batch until all the maps have failed.

A) Seems my LMHosts file needs to be read by the Win98 immediately and is not. I added the #include funtion to the file leading to the directory the file is in. According to MS's sample I was also supposed to include a registry addition in a key I can't remember the path to at the moment. When I when to the lanmanserver key it didn't exactly seem like something I wanted to be toying with.

B) Arp is functional in Win98, but as luck has it I have no clue how to use it at present.

Basically it seems that everything but name resolution is present and accounted for. I either need to be pointed in the right direction of a good place to look it up or get some dummy instruction on how to make sure I didn't try to implement it wrong.

Any help is appreciated. And Franklin, can't thank you enough thus far...your posts have helped me in really thinking through the process!

 

[Techserv]

Found the problem!!! As it turns out I didn't have netbeui enabled on the VPN adapter. As soon as I enabled it the clients mapped drives connnected upon login. I don't know of any security issues this might cause but we are looking into tweaking security now that we have the connectivity we wanted.

Thanks for all the help!!