Connecting to VPN, can't ping... What else is new? :-)

[confusedtekguy]

Hi guys, I'm sure you've seen this problem many times before, but here goes. My boss asked me to connect a remote office to our network via VPN, but this is my first time at the location and I dont know at all the setup there. It's a 10 person office, and, ofcourse, they dont have their own admin. Here's what I found out when I went on site:

WinNT server in a workgroup - prehistoric dinosaur

Cisco 675 or higher router... I forgot which one exactly

Cisco is also the DHCP

Quest DSL connection

No WINS, no DNS

NO FIREWALL (unless there's on in the router)

Tried connecting from a brand new win2k workstation through a PPTP VPN connection. First problem is that it would take me 3-4 tries to connect: First try - cannot open the port, Second try cannot verify user/pass, Third try - it would start working. When I would finaly connect, I cant ping anything, althought when I do ipconfig /all I see the right WINS and DNS servers that are on SMC domain. Here's what ipconfig looks like:
Windows 2000 IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : LO
Primary DNS Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connecti
on
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-49

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.102
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : xxx.xxx.128.1
xxx.xxx.80.5
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday, July 25, 2003 3:24:40 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, July 25, 2003 3:42:40 PM

PPP adapter SMC:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-00
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.202
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.202
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.15
xx.xxx.96.12
Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.15
Secondary WINS Server . . . . . . : 10.0.0.15

I have tested the VPN connection from my win2k home PC and it works perfectly - I can ping, and even brouse the network, so I know that VPN is not the problem. I tried getting into the router and, ofcourse, there's a password and no one on site even knows what a router is. I know one of the problems could be that TCP is not being alowed through port 1723 on the router, but unfortunately I have no means of access to the router... can it be anything else but that? Am I missing something? Is there a way to get into the router without knowing the password? Thanks in advance for all your help

 

[ChicagoTechNet]

quoted from

http://www25.brinkster.com/ChicagoTech

Can't access the remote network at home only

Symptoms: you setup VPN on a laptop connecting to the office VPN Server. At home, you can connect and authenticate just fine but can't ping any address on the remote network. If using the same laptop in a different location, the VPN works.

Cause: The problem is the home LAN (VPN client) using the same IP and Subnet as the remote LAN you were trying to dial into.


For more tips or information, go to

http://www25.brinkster.com/ChicagoTech

Robert Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Windows, Network and How to at

http://www25.brinkster.com/ChicagoTech

 

[confusedtekguy]

That didnt really help, I'm not using the same IP as the remote LAN that I'm trying to log into. And the website you provided only has general hints, that are designed to get the user to call up their consulting services at a hefty rate. So thanks for that plug of your website, but I was hoping for some real help.

 

[ChicagoTechNet]

according to the posting ipconfig /all NIC was using 10.0.0.102 and PPP was using 10.0.0.202.

Robert Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Windows, Network and How to at

http://www25.brinkster.com/ChicagoTech

 

[confusedtekguy]

Hmmmm... I can change the range of the PPPs addresses, to, let's say - 10.0.1.202, do you think that might resolve the problem? I cant get into the router, since it's the DHCP so I cant really change the range on the LAN side.