MUVPN Win2K Is WINS Really Necessary?

[resoremix]

I think I've read every FAQ and forum post going on this topic but still am a little bit in the dark with regard to the role of WINS in an Active Directory, Win2K domain when using the MUVPN client through a Firebox 700.

My small network uses Active Directory DNS and I have no need for WINS servers as it runs in native mode perfectly well, only needing to service Win2000 Pro host name resolutions.

I have seen many references to MUVPN requiring access to a WINS server. I have only supplied the DNS server's IP in the firebox's config and the MUVPN client config files.

When connecting with a laptop (Win2kPro) via a dial up connection, the tunnel is created fine and I can ping hosts (including the domain controller) on the trusted network. I can even ping by host name and this is resolved correctly. Then, when I try and map a network drive Win2K always hangs on the 'Attempting to connect network drive' dialog. The weird thing is that when this apparently fails with an error message, I sometimes get the mapping I was trying to create appearing in explorer and I can browse it as normal.

This seems strange as I would expect it to either never map the drive or be fine???

I don't want to introduce WINS to my network if I don't really need it but if this is what's causing the problem I will.

Any thoughts would be great.

Thanks

 

[ashleym]

The problem is proabably latency on your slow dial up connection. This has noting to do with name resolution since you can ping hosts by their names and they resolve, so DNS is doing its job. Is there anyway you can test with a high speed connection? Have you tried mapping drives with IP instead of \\servername so \\192.168.1.x\share name.

AM

 

[bugz1]

i had the same problem, and the funny thing was the Client for MS networks was unchecked in the DUN. checked it..rebooted..worked fine.

hope that helps.

 

[resoremix]

Thanks for replying

ashleym - Mapping with ip addresses does not work.
bugz1 - Client for MS networks is checked in DUN.

Are you both running WINS servers on your networks?

 

[derson]

all you need i believe in your wins tab is tcp/ip over netbui enabled not a wins server address

 

[Dollie]

Thought I'd give this a bump up the list and see if anyone's found an answer to this question.

It's been my impression that WINS does not have to be used on Windows 2000, but the only way to get the MUVPN to work is to enable WINS on the server and set up the WINS servers on the dialup connection. (This is when the MUVPN will work at all, which is rare.)

Probably more to post later.... having a heck of a time setting up an MUVPN and getting tired of fighting it and not ever finding a real answer on Watchguard's site!