Am I missing the obvious

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I have just configured a server to to accept VPN connections.
On the remote client computer I can authenticate and connect to this server.
But that is the end of the line. I want to see the server's resources
(drives printers etc) but I cant see a way of doing that. All I can see is
the local network not the remote network even though I have authenticated and
connected.

What am I missing??

Can I not see the woods for the trees?
 
browsing over vpn is not easy. try this step by step how to. http://howtonetworking.com/VPN/browsingovervpn0.htm

Don't send e-mail or reply to me except you need consulting services. Posting on MS newsgroup will benefit all readers and you may get more help.

Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
How to Setup Windows, Network, Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.
I recommend Brinkster for web hosting!

I have just configured a server to to accept VPN connections.
On the remote client computer I can authenticate and connect to this server.
But that is the end of the line. I want to see the server's resources
(drives printers etc) but I cant see a way of doing that. All I can see is
the local network not the remote network even though I have authenticated and
connected.

What am I missing??

Can I not see the woods for the trees?
 
Making a VPN connection is not the same as plugging into a network. All
that you get is a point-to-point IP connection. If your LAN is running DNS
and/or WINS, you should be able to use that for name resolution. If not, you
will need hosts/lmhosts files on the client. As Bob Lin said, browsing is
tricky.

When name resolution is working, you can see shares using net view
\\machinename and map them using net use \\machinename\filenmame .

browsing over vpn is not easy. try this step by step how to.
http://howtonetworking.com/VPN/browsingovervpn0.htm

Don't send e-mail or reply to me except you need consulting services.
Posting on MS newsgroup will benefit all readers and you may get more help.

Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
How to Setup Windows, Network, Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.
I recommend Brinkster for web hosting!

I have just configured a server to to accept VPN connections.
On the remote client computer I can authenticate and connect to this
server.
But that is the end of the line. I want to see the server's resources
(drives printers etc) but I cant see a way of doing that. All I can see is
the local network not the remote network even though I have authenticated
and
connected.

What am I missing??

Can I not see the woods for the trees?
 
Thank you folks, I did miss the obvious. I should have posted the question
sooner, as I spent hours trying to figure it out. I added an entry to the
hosts file of the client and could browse to my server using its name. I then
removed the host entry added dhcp to the server which included itself as a
dns server and when the client attached, it got an ip address with dns
pointing to the server and I could browse, by name, right through my network.
from that point it was mearly a matter of mapping drives.

One futher question on this topic. As a rule of thumb, when connecting to a
remote server to run a single application, which is faster and more
reliable, a VPN or terminal services? I am thinking of an application which
uses SQL on the server and does send quite a bit of data to the client.

At the moment I have my client running terminal services but I was
experimenting with a VPN to see if it was worth switching him to a VPN. My
initial gut feeling is that TS would be faster as only screen info is
transmitted over the internet (except for printing and that is a lot of data
with either method). I have already switched the email from terminal services
to rpc over http and that works beautifully.
 
In general, I would recommend terminal services for a database
application. With TS, the application is running on the terminal server
which has highspeed access to the database. With VPN, the application is
running on the remote client. Because of the latency of a VPN connection you
may get timeouts on your database operations. You can of course do both (ie
run a TS connection over VPN) if you want the extra security of a VPN
connection.
 
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