Newbie VPN with 2 XP Pro pcs

[santlou]

I setup a VPN server on my winxp pc in my home.
I have a linksys BEFSR11 router on my lan.
I setup a vpn client on another machine on the same lan.

I can connect the client to the vpn server pc using the ip address that the router assigned to the server. I know this connection is only on the inside of my lan, but i just wanted to test the server/client setup.

Here is my question - and its probably a dumb question, but:

After I successfully connect the client to the server, (and i know they r connected cause both pcs say that they are connected), then how do I access information on the server ? I'm connected, but now what do i do to lets say access files on my server ? How can I c the server files on my client ? I brought up my network places, but that just shows my standard lan network places.

Can someone point me in the right direction ???

 

[EddieVenus]

Ok, though it is not a dumb question per se, it may look a bit silly when you understand what you have just done.

A VPN, is a Virtual Private Network, thus an emulated LAN. A LAN is your Local Area Network. Therefore what you have done is emulate a LAN on your LAN. You can easily share files and such without the VPN, in fact you will not GAIN anything in this situation with a VPN.

answer:
you can get to the other machine by using \\VPNassignedIPhere. meaing that you can access the other PC just as if it were on your network, by simply putting in the IP that the other PC got from the VPN connection. This other IP address should be 1 digit off from the one you got from the VPN connection. Thus you now have a Virtual LAN environment, without the rest of the LAN. It will not show up in Network Neighborhood (network places) untill you go to it, since the PC would keep checking for VPN connections if it had to put every PC in there. Inefficient. So you CAN do it this way, but WHY?

you may have to make a user profile on the other PC to match your user on your local PC in order to do the file shares and such, but you must have done that already if you have file shares out there already. check with the MS site, or better yet in other forums here at Tek-tips to get more info on VPNs, but what I told you so far is what you asked for.