VPN and Network Shares

[turnerm]

I originally posted this in the ASUS RT-AC66 section as that is the router I'm using but perhaps it's better suited for here so...

I'm having trouble getting my VPN connection setup in such a way that I can see my network shares. I'm successfully getting connected to the VPN but I just cannot see any network shares or network computers. I also cannot connect to network locations that I have already mapped.

I've got a MS Surface running Windows RT. On this machine I've mapped several shared network folders. While on my LAN I can access these flawlessly. I've setup a VPN connection and can successfully connect (I've proven this by checking my IP address and by also logging onto my Router using it's internal IP address while connected to the VPN remotely). But once I'm connected I get an error message while trying to use a mapped network location.

I've tried to setup the VPN one of two ways.

1 - No port forwarding
2 - Setting up port forwarding to a computer on my LAN and then configuring an incoming connection on that computer and allowing file/printer sharing on that incoming connection. When done this way I KNOW that I'm connected because I can see it in my network adapters.

But in either scenario I still cannot utilize my network shares which is the whole reason I'm trying to setup a VPN in the first place.

So what do I need to do to make this happen? I'd like it to work just as my work laptop works while using the VPN that they've setup. Once I connect I can access everything just as if I were in the office.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[thiggins]

First try pinging the two machines you are trying to connect from each other.

Try accessing the share via its IP address, i.e, \\ip-address

 

[turnerm]

First try pinging the two machines you are trying to connect from each other.

Try accessing the share via its IP address, i.e, \\ip-address

I think I have it figured out now. The VPN IP range was in a different subnet than the rest of my devices. So I've changed that and while I haven't yet been able to test this from my MS Surface I was able to connect to the VPN via my iPhone and ping the other network computers so I know that it's seeing them.

I'll test it out later today with my Surface and see if I can connect as I'm expecting to and report back.

 

[turnerm]

I thought I'd just take a quick minute to summarize how I got this working (thanks a ton to Pericynthion and RMerlin for their help!) in case someone else stumbles across this thread with the same type question.

First - as noted above, make sure that your VPN IP range is in the same subnet as the machine(s) that you're trying to access via a network share. Without this (or some other workaround) the computer will not be able to see the other computers on the network.

Second - either enable broadcast support (VPN to Client works just fine) or map your shares by IP Address (as opposed to computer name) in order to use the shares you already have setup on the machine you're trying to VPN with. If you disable broadcast support you will have to map your shares by IP Address. With broadcast support enabled it SHOULD work with just the computer name... but if it doesn't then simply remap using the IP Address of the computer you're trying to reach.

If you end up using an IP address in your network share mapping then you will want to setup your router to assign a fixed IP address to that computer.

 

[net101]

It is usually not advisable to have the same IP range on the VPN as your LAN. One of the reasons is bandwidth conservation. You don't want broadcast messages flowing to all VPN client. Secondly, security.

You can accomplish Network Shares Accessibility by modifying the firewall rules on the computer offering the shares.

Change File and Printer Sharing (SMB-In) rule properties. Specifically change the scope. Remote IP Address should be Local Subnet and the VPN subnet. Here's what mine reads,
Local subnet
10.10.10.0/24

You can now access the shares using \\servername\sharename.

Hope this helps.

 

[Drig]

It is usually not advisable to have the same IP range on the VPN as your LAN. One of the reasons is bandwidth conservation. You don't want broadcast messages flowing to all VPN client. Secondly, security.

You can accomplish Network Shares Accessibility by modifying the firewall rules on the computer offering the shares.

Change File and Printer Sharing (SMB-In) rule properties. Specifically change the scope. Remote IP Address should be Local Subnet and the VPN subnet. Here's what mine reads,
Local subnet
10.10.10.0/24

You can now access the shares using \\servername\sharename.

Hope this helps.

Cant seem to get it to work this way, works fine with same IP range as the subnet.

 

[net101]

Do you have a route from the VPN subnet to the LAN? Can you ping from a host on the VPN subnet to LAN and vice-versa?

 

[Drig]

Do you have a route from the VPN subnet to the LAN? Can you ping from a host on the VPN subnet to LAN and vice-versa?

I'm trying to setup the route but that's where I'm falling short!

 

[net101]

I would know how to do it on a Linux based router. I run pfSense. The openvpn wizard allows one to set it up.