WinXP VPN Problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter terence.parker
  • Start date Start date
T

terence.parker

Here's a strange problem:

Synopsis:
Two sites, each with a ZyXEL ZyWall 10 - which does ipsec routing.
Behind site B ZyWall is a Windows 2003 Server with a shared folder on
fake IP. PC's on site A want to connect to windows share on site B.
Works in Win98 - doesn't work in Windows XP.

Details:
On Windows 98 everything functions correctly. The share contains some
19gb of data, but it all still works fine through the VPN. The ZyWall
suggests the connection is established and fine too - and since it
works on Win98 one would not suspect the VPN itself.

On Windows XP, you can connect to the server. You can login, and then
see a list of shares. Some of these shares you can enter - [netlogon]
for example, or any others which have little or no content. But you
click on [share] - it takes too long and eventually times out (error
says permission problem - but I suspect it's not and the message is
wrong).

Interestingly, I tried sharing a folder WITHIN share - that worked,
until you tried to enter another subdirectory with a lot of files in.
Is this an issue of quantity of files? But it works in Win98! And we're
not even talking about that many files before it ceases to work.

Windows XP firewall is off.

I have no idea what the problem is. I tried installing an FTP server on
the the 2003 server - works in Win98 and not XP. Same with using IIS to
serve the files on HTTP. There is *something* that Windows is doing
with its networking that makes everything not work over VPN.

But surely VPN is transparently done by the ZyWall's though?

Anyone care to enlighten me? I would much appreciate it!

Thanks,

Terence
 
I am not sure that it is a VPN issue, but more likely it is a
permissions issue. What do you have set for permissions, on both the
security and sharing tabs, on the folder that you are sharing? Unless
each user has an account on the Windows 2k3 server you will need to
make sure that the user 'Everyone' has at least read, list, and execute
permissions on the securitry tab of the share, and read permissions on
the sharing tab.

Chad
 
Thanks for your posting.

I have checked the permissions on the 2003 server and there shouldn't
be any problems - the user I am using for VPN has access to the files,
but I have even tried resetting the whole share to include 'everyone',
but to no avail. Furthermore, I can share a sub-folder within the share
and that would work - it seems the problem is related to the number of
files within each shared directory.

This problem is still puzzling me... I don't know why Microsoft has to
make things so complicated!

Terence
 
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