XP home and VPN problems

[Elliot M. Rodriguez]

I think this is a peculiarity in Windows XP Home, but I am not sure. Need
some extra info.

Our office uses Cisco VPN software for external intranet access. Connections
work fine. After connecting, inspecting the IP settings for the Cisco
connection indicate that the IP address and the DNS addresses are both
correct.

We have a web application that is accessed via NetBios name, which works
fine. At one stage of the application, PDF documents are opened in a browser
window using a UNC share path (//foo/mydirectory/mydoc.pdf). It is here that
the user receives a DNS error.

We can ping the machine that hosts the PDF documents by name, and the IP
address does resolve properly. Additionally, we have users who can VPN and
use the web application over windows 2000 and XP Professional (I personally
use Professional), without incident.

What else should we check with respect to this users machine?

 

[CZ]

using a UNC share path (//foo/mydirectory/mydoc.pdf).

Elliot:

That is not in the UNC format.
UNC format per Help & Support:
Universal Naming Convention (UNC)
A convention for naming files and other resources beginning with two
backslashes (\), indicating that the resource exists on a network computer.
UNC names conform to the \\SERVERNAME\SHARENAME syntax, where SERVERNAME is
the server's name and SHARENAME is the name of the shared resource. The UNC
name of a directory or file can also include the directory path after the
share name, with the following syntax:
\\SERVERNAME\SHARENAME\DIRECTORY\FILENAME.


OP's full post:some extra info.

Our office uses Cisco VPN software for external intranet access. Connections
work fine. After connecting, inspecting the IP settings for the Cisco
connection indicate that the IP address and the DNS addresses are both
correct.

We have a web application that is accessed via NetBios name, which works
fine. At one stage of the application, PDF documents are opened in a browser
window using a UNC share path (//foo/mydirectory/mydoc.pdf). It is here that
the user receives a DNS error.

We can ping the machine that hosts the PDF documents by name, and the IP
address does resolve properly. Additionally, we have users who can VPN and
use the web application over windows 2000 and XP Professional (I personally
use Professional), without incident.

What else should we check with respect to this users machine?

 

[Elliot M. Rodriguez]

Bad semantics. I got my slashes mixed up (it happens sometimes). The path
satisifes the UNC definition you included below.
The problem still exists. Any thoughts?

 

[CZ]

Bad semantics. I got my slashes mixed up (it happens sometimes). The path
satisifes the UNC definition you included below.
The problem still exists. Any thoughts?


Elliot:

Setup name resolution in your hosts file in \windows\system32\drivers\etc
folder:
x.x.x.x foo

Then try it


some extra info.

Our office uses Cisco VPN software for external intranet access. Connections
work fine. After connecting, inspecting the IP settings for the Cisco
connection indicate that the IP address and the DNS addresses are both
correct.

We have a web application that is accessed via NetBios name, which works
fine. At one stage of the application, PDF documents are opened in a browser
window using a UNC share path (//foo/mydirectory/mydoc.pdf). It is here that
the user receives a DNS error.

We can ping the machine that hosts the PDF documents by name, and the IP
address does resolve properly. Additionally, we have users who can VPN and
use the web application over windows 2000 and XP Professional (I personally
use Professional), without incident.

What else should we check with respect to this users machine?