[michael_jii]

Hi, I am trying to connect a laptop's VPN through an xp home machine with ADSL, the ICS is all set up on the xp machine but when i try to connect the VPN on the laptop it says destination unavalible?? the LAN connection shows up as enabled

what could be gong wrong, this is very important as my dad needs to connect for work reasons,


many thanks,

michael

 

[Bob Cerelli]

Where is the VPN server located and is it configured correctly.

 

[steve65]

Can you surf web pages with the laptop?

If so, I would remove the XP home machine and connect the laptop to the ADSL modem instead. ICS is primarily for serving html pages on port 80, I'm not sure that it is configured with enough flexability to allow VPN traffic through.

If not, you probably do not have the default gateway set correctly on the laptop. It should be pointing to the XP Home machine.

One thing to consider, If this is a work laptop then it is probably setup to use DHCP to obtain it's IP address. I believe that ICS uses static IP addresses which would mean that you would need to change the settings every time he brings the computer home.

An inexpensive router that is setup as a DHCP server could make this a lot easier in the long run.

Steve

 

[michael_jii]

hmm, everything is connected fine, no you can't connect to internet, and it works fine with the same settings at home. i cant really change many settings cos its a comapany laptop

 

[Bob Cerelli]

If you can't connect to the Internet, then likely the VPN connection isn't going to work either.

 

[michael_jii]

yeh, where do you think the problem lies?

 

[Bob Cerelli]

Some more detailed information would be helpful.

Can any computer connect to the Internet.

If it's just the one trying to use the shared connection, perhaps ICS is not configured correctly.

If ICS used to work, then what has changed.

 

[steve65]

It's also possible that the laptop is configured with a static IP address which could be creating problems. If the laptop is Win 2000 or XP click on start > run > type "cmd" in the dialog box to open a command prompt window. At the prompt type in "ipconfig /all" and then hit enter. You should see something similar to below.

For the laptop to work correctly at work and at home it would be best to have DHCP enabled. (as you can see mine is disabled but on my laptop it is enabled because my router acts as a dhcp server and I use my laptop both at home and at work)

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 3Com EtherLink 10/100 PCI TX NIC (3C
905B-TX)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-10-4B-45-32-0f
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

Also note the default gateway and DNS server. For ICS to work correctly the default gateway of the client machine must point to the private address of the machine connected directly to the DSL modem. To find the private address of the server machine, run the same utility (ipconfig) on it. It should display an internet IP address and an internal ip something like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x thats the address you are looking for.

If your fathers laptop is not configured to use DHCP, then he should talk to his net admin about changing that. A VPN client would be nearly useless without utilizing DHCP. (unless of course, that is what they want)

Report back your findings and we can go from there.

Steve

ps. I'm hoping that someday someone will take this advice so I keep repeating it. So here goes. Buy a router. They work better, they are more dependable, more secure, easier to troubleshoot, and configure, and at least here in the US are almost given away (in some cases they are if you can wait for the rebate!)

 

[Bob Cerelli]

Agree with Steve on this. It is amazing how many posts there are from folks having problems with ICS.

This is in addition to the fact that you always need to have one computer on all the time.

Also, since this computer is directly connected to the Internet , it is much more vulnerable than one that is behind a router.

 

[michael_jii]

ok, i have eliminated the vpn and connected the modem directly into the laptop via USB, now i can acess the internet (i am typing this from it) and it will connect the VPN. BUT and this is a big one, when i try to synchronise his folders of acess his companys private internet thingy, it cant find the site ad says ""MS exchange server couldnot be found......."

any ideas????


thanks, michael

 

[michael_jii]

o yh, we are in oz and the admin for his work is in manchester :::: its weird ços he's in holland, but anyway, we can't get onto them cos there's been fires there and the phones are down.

 

[steve65]

Try using the IP address of the Exchange server instead of it's name.

Else add the ip address and name to the hosts file on the laptop in the following format:

10.1.X.X ExchangeServerName

The hosts file is located in the c:\Windows\system32\drivers\ect folder. Open it with Notepad and add the entry to the top of the file.

Steve

 

[steve65]

Make sure there is a space or tab between the ip address and the computer name. It didn't show up very well in my previous post.

Steve

 

[michael_jii]

ok thanks, but i don't know if i will be able to do that, restricted laptop... gggrrrrrrrr

 

[michael_jii]

lol, no can;t do that, the windows folder cannto be accessed and doesn't show up under normal circumstances in my computer