winxp Cannot Navigate to File Server (via IP or Name) via VPN on XP SP3

[Dork Of Nerky]

This one really has me scratching my head because of all the conflicting information. Let me explain.

We have a non-domain based Windows Server 2003 server with a PPTP VPN set up on it. Connecting to it and accessing server shares have not been a problem on Windows 7, Mac OS X, and Linux. We can access the file server via IP (for example, smb://192.168.1.10) on OS X and Linux without any issues, and Windows 7 is able to access the file server by its name (for example, \\SERVER). There's one troublemaker in all of this: XP.

A netbook running Windows XP SP3 has this peculiar issue of being able to connect to the VPN without any issues. As soon as you try to connect to any shares (by IP or Name), it refuses to connect. Pinging the IP and Name results in Timeout errors.

As I didn't have a XP box at home to test this with, I brought the netbook home with me to figure out what's wrong. Oddly enough, I could not replicate the issue. I was able to connect to the VPN successfully AND navigate to the server via IP address without any trouble. At this point, I'm thinking there's something wrong with the owner's home network.

BUT the netbook owner also has a laptop at home running Windows 7 that's able to connect to the VPN and browse the file server (by name) without any trouble.

Needless to say, I'm stumped. I can't tell if this is an issue with her home network or something in XP in particular. With so many things that DO work, it's making figuring out what is in fact the issue tougher. Any suggestions?

[BeerFan]

I would agree that it seems like somethings going on with her home network. I'd suggest having her reboot her modem & / or router.

[+BudMan MVC]

Question for you -- what is the exact network your using on the vpn connection and the servers IP?

using 192.168.1.0/24 would really be a bad idea -- since that is going to match up to many home networks range.

So it worked on your home network -- and what network do you use at home, does it overlap with the vpn servers IP or vpn network?

What is the setting on the vpn connection for default gateway on the xp client?

Not be able to ping the IP of server is bad sign.. Can they ping it from the win7 box?

I would suggest we get the output of ipconfig /all and route print from the xp client when they are connected. And then the same from the win7 box they say works.

Also what are networks in use, like I said using 192.168.1.0/24 on the server is going conflict with lots of home networks! If you have home user connecting in, I would use an odd ball private network like 172.22.36.0/24 for something -- highly unlikely to conflict with any other networks with something so odd ball.

[Tech Geek Alex]

I have a couple of suggestions -

1) If both the Netbook and PC have static IPs, swap them, reboot and then try it. See if the problem goes with the Netbook or the IP address.

2) If you are DHCP, take the IP info from the PC and enter it on the Netbook as a static address and see if that changes anything. (Again, I'm just looking to see if the IP is at play here).

3) Make sure you have the exact same info (DNS, Gateway, etc) on both. Ive seen something stupid like that happen when 1 machine was pointed to a.13 gateway and the other to a .12 gateway

4) I would then also suggest checking the Internet option -> LAN settings, to make sure nothing is there that isnt supposed to be there

5) Check your HOST file on the Netbook c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. Make sure that there isnt a line in there that was entered because of a firewall or program that could be causing this issue.

6) Also make sure you are logging in on a netbook with the same user name / pwd in windows as one that is created on the server.

-> Im not trying to be a smart ass here. However, when you said it worked for you, did you use your ID info? Because of the higher security in server 2003 / W7 from XP ive seen this kind of issue happen when the user name and password werent matching on the server box and the xp box, but a W7 box would be able to compensate for it.

Just things off the top of my head. Let us know what resolved your issue.

Good Luck

Alex