I am trying to find a step by step guide on how to connect my pocket PC having a wireless wifi connection to any hotspot and be able to access my home desktop PC running win2k which is connected to the internet. I want to play my mp3 and video files the same way I can do when I am connected to my wireless network at my home, but via the internet. I have tried to use the win2k network wizard to setup a an incoming connection, but it's not clear to me how I would get into my shared resources from another PC or my PocketPC over the internet. I found some pretty complex articles on setting up a VPN, but again its not clear if I need some other server software.
Here is how I setup a PPTP VPN into my home LAN using a XP Pro desktop as the VPN server and access it with an iPAQ 5555 PocketPC. In my case remote access is setup so I can access the VPN server from WiFi hotspots or if I dial into my ISP using a Targus modem...
Once the VPN tunnel is established I can either ActiveSync with my XP Pro desktop (the VPN server) or access shared files on the PC using the built-in File Explorer.
Note that if the desktop PC is behind a firewall/NAT/router that your need to forward TCP Port 1723 to the private LAN IP of the server AND you need to enable GRE Protocol 47 traffic through the firewall/NAT/router. The latter is sometimes called PPTP Pass Through or VPN Pass Through. The Windows Firewall automagically enables this when you forward TCP Port 1723.
Also, note that GRE Protocol 47 traffic can be highly dependent on the firmware in the firewall/NAT/router. For example with my Buffalo WBR-G54 I simply can not get a PPTP VPN tunnel through the router no matter what version of firmware I use. With my Linksys BEFSR41 (V1) I can get a PPTP VPN tunnel with some versions of firmware including the newest 1.46.2 release.
I think the method of setting up a W2K desktop as a PPTP VPN server is similar to setting up the XP server, but never having used W2K I can't say for sure...
Thank you for this information. I've been searching all over for this and nothing had come up in the search engines. I have configured the win2k with an incoming connection and my AXIM30 as a client as described in the article, and my D-link DI-624 router for TCP 1723 and PPTP pass through. (Do I also select IPSec?) When I try to connect to the VPN from the AXIM I get a connecting to . message then I get a cannot connect message "VPN server problems. Verify your username and password, and try again...." . I have tried using my existing win2k user name, and even added a new name with password, made sure all is correct case, but still can't get past this. I then tried to configure my laptop as a client to access the win2k, and I get a similar message indicating error 721. Is there a log or someplace recorded where I can see why its refusing me the connection? Also, what is the format for the connecting computer host/Ip name is it "mycomputer.ip-address" (delimiter is a period?). Do I indicate the domain name as the workgroup name? I tried it with and without. Any further diagnostic help would be appreciated to help track this down.
Try testing over your home LAN first. The error your getting indicates to me that the GRE Protocol 47 traffic is not being passed through the router. I see the same error when I tried to setup my Buffalo WBR-G54 for a PPTP VPN tunnel... With my Linksys BEFSR41 and the right version of firmware it works fine. These consumer grade routers are notorious for issues with firmware...
To call from the local LAN use the local private LAN IP address. From a remote site use the public IP of the router. You do not need a domain name for a home workgroup environment...
One test you can run from a remote site is to use the MS Port Query tool. See the VPN Traffic section on this page...
I finally got this working. I ran into a couple major problems that neither Microsoft or D-link were able to identify, but I finally figured it out.
The main reason I was not getting connected was that I was testing the PPC to VPN using my vpn connection via my own wireless LAN. I finally discovered that if I use my neighbors wireless LAN connection, it connects to my home vpn without any problem. I read afterwards in a D-link tech note, buried in there knowlege base, that you can't have this internal loopback, you must connect the PPC to a different wireless LAN when a vpn connection exists on your home system.
The second problem that was making it so frustrating was that the PPC seems to always forget the setting for My Work Network - This Network Connects to the internet - as checked -it never remembers this checbox setting. The only problem I seem to have now is that when I click on disconnect, the PPC can't finish and is always waiting for some reason. I have to turn off the PPC to disconnect!
Thanks for all your help, it was the best step-by-step guide I've seen.
Note, however, that you can use VPN internally on your home wireless/wired LAN. Its a matter of how you address the VPN server. The page I pointed you to illustrates how to access the LAN via a VPN tunnel from a remote site using a fully qualified domain name.
To access my home VPN server using my local wireless LAN segment I use the network name, ie. in my case the server name is Ashtabula, versus the fully qualified domain name from No-IP.com that I use to access the server from a remote location... I guess I failed to mention that small detail...:-)
So, your right in that if you use the fully qualified domain name from your local LAN to access your local LAN then it may not work... I do understand some consumer grade routers do allow the use of a loop-back address... I can't personally tell you which ones though...
An added point is that some folks do use a VPN tunnel into their home LAN locally via a wireless link for added security as do some corporate entities... Personally, at least in my situation, I believe that is over kill for the average home user...
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