Nortel VPN & local Printing/Access

[dons1903]

Ladies & Gents.

I have a Linksys Wireless router connected to my cable modem. I access my company network with Nortel VPN client 4_15.14 Once the Tunnel is stablished I cannot access the printer shared on my other PC (which is not VPN'd). Is there a solution to this ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dons1903]

Guess I am on my own :-(

 

[woochman]

dons -

I get quite a few questions about this at work. When you tunnel in via the VPN, you can't access any resources on your local (home) network. The tunnel creates a secure connection to your corporate LAN. You can print to printers that are in your office, but not to your home printer.

To resolve this, I pull up the item I want to print from the VPN, disconnect, print to my home printer, then immediately re-connect to the VPN. Sounds like a pain, but it's the only way to do it.

Hope this helps.

Chris

 

[fdisk2068]

You company does allow you to use something called split tunneling. This allows you to access you local resoucse while using the VPN to your company. Without split tunneling the VPN virtually makes you part of the companies LAN causing your local resources not to be accessable.

 

[kiphi]

Interestingly enough I have the same setup Linksys router BEFW11S4 (not using the wireless part due to other problems) directly connected to DSL link. I also access my company network with Nortel VPN client 4_15.14.
PC runs WinXP. Printer is connected to Linksys router via HP Jetdirect 170X and it can't print exactly as you describe.

Isn't there anybody out there that has a workaround for this? It should be possible to make the PC direct the print stream separately from the VPN stream? Why does it send everything via the tunnel? I have no chance of making the big company change it in their end!

 

[dons1903]

I do have a solution but I am not sure if it will help you (kiphi). I have added Netbios & IPX to my network stacks on both PCS. I can now access the shares on home PC from my laptop connected to the VPN.

 

[kiphi]

That might be usefull for me also dons1903. I can add IPX and the printserver understands IPX also. Could you give me a few more details?:

1. Why do you add Netbios also?
2. Is it Microsoft IPX substitute or is it Novel IPX driver, both are on the Win98 CD (and probably also on winxp cd)?

3. How do you force the PC (winxp) to use IPX to print instead of IP. At this time I am using a standard HP driver that addresses the printer using the assigned IP adress for the print server (I had to change standard Linksys address from 192.168.1.xxx to 192.168.0.xxx as the printserver couldnt' use the first)? I am printing to a TCP/IP port instead of LPT1.

4. How does IPX manage to grab the print job and send it to the local printer instead of it being sent through the VPN tunnel to the company with the rest of the traffic?

4. You write that you can now access the (company) shares, but in you original question you talked about not being able to print - did you have/solve a share problem, a company printer problem or a local printer problem?

Hope you can answer some of this - thanks.

 

[tlc1974]

Hi,

I am having the same problem - I need to be able to print to my network printer whne connecting to my windows 2000 server via vpn. I am unsure about how to map a network printer. I have tried mapping it as a local printer and that still doesn't work.

Anyone got any suggestions - any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks

 

[hpwiz]

I followed some of the previous info and got it to work!
This is how:
when you print or access local lan shares, you can use ip or ipx...

if you use a vpn, your ip is taken over and can only be sent throught the tunnel (unless you have a very unusual setup) and you can't access local ip (shares or printers)...

but for accessing your local lan (shares or printers), you can also use ipx

tthe two protocols - ip and ipx - work independent of each other

by adding netbios and ipx (both are the microsoft version) to all computers on the local lan, you can not only print , but you can access shares on all pc's with any of them on or off the vpn.

I have a win 98 and a win xp (home edition) on my local lan and I can print and access shares regardless of any of the pc's being on or off the vpn.

the only thing I noticed is a little slowdown because of the extra protocols, but I can live with it as long as I can print and access the other pc while on the vpn.

If you don't have your os disk to install all the drivers, look on

http://www.driverguide.com

to find them...

 

[dons1903]

Sorry for taking do long to reply, been busy trying to hold down a job as well as surf the net & write on message boards.

To answer the above questions -

1 NetBios is auto added when you add IPX

2 MS IPX Driver

3 & 4 - search for the PC Name eg \\mypc, log on and "connect" to the printer or map the share Easy

5 I can access Home & Company shares.

Works great for shares but the printer can be temperamental

Regards

 

[kiphi]

Thank you for your replies hpwiz and dons 1903.
Could you please enhance your answers to my question #3 above. I am not quite sure I understand how you set up the local network printer to be accessed using IPX instead of IP. The following is from my Win98 machine, although the VPN problem is on my WIN XP machine, but I guess the shift from IP to IPX must be done on both machines?:

Today (using IP to address the HP Jet Direct Print Server) I am using a standard printer driver from HP that allows me to select an IP printer port (Raw protocol using port 9100) (HPLaserJet1100 (HP Standard TCP/IP Port) in printers, properties, details.

To shift to IPX, what should I select? port choices in the menu are: Com1, File, LPT1, and TCP/IP port.

I don't see where I can select using IPX instead of IP, and I dont understand this: "3 & 4 - search for the PC Name eg \\mypc, log on and "connect" to the printer or map the share Easy" - why should I search for a PC that I am operating.

Hope you can advice on this?
thanks

 

[hpwiz]

For 3&4 above, this refers to another pc (or print server) on the home network. (All of the shares and printers on the pc you are on will always accessible to that pc.)

The 3&4 comment shows you how to access another pc (not the one your on) by doing a Find (a computer) by entering the name of the other computer (or print server) in Find. Once the other computer is located (if you have set up ipx and netbios as above, there is nothing else to do for this to work) you will see the computer and any connected printers or shares. From that point, you would map to the share or set up the printer. If you are still having trouble understanding this, leave you e-mail address and I will contact you directly.

 

[1911man]

If your Contivity switch is setup split tunneling you can do the following for sure because I just did it last night. I dont know if it will work if split tunneling is not enabled.

Set the printer up as a local printer and create a Standard TCP/IP port with the printer's IP.

 

[krymat]

Make sure your home network subnet is different from your work subnet

example
home: 192.168.1.x
work: 192.168.1.x = home network browsing doesn't work

home:192.168.10.x
work:192.168.1.x = home network browsing does work

 

[MarkHickok]

I've got the same problem with my VPN connection and LinkSys wireless connection. I've recently added LinkSys's "Network Storage Link" and observe that when I am connected to the VPN - Printing to a local printer (hooked up to a 170x) and the NSL disks are not reachable...

I added the IPX/SPX protocol and still can't print or get to the drives...

Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance....