Hi,
Just setup a PPTP VPN client on my Windows XP Home SP2 Laptop (ICF firewall) to connect to my Windows XP Pro SP2 (Sygate firewall) Desktop's VPN server situated behind a USR8000-02 US Robotics router. Enabled PPTP forwarding on the router (built in rule, open port 1723, quite nice...). Registered my always changing IP address with no-ip.org, so I always access my home public WAN side with a DNS registered name. Smooth. I have 3 issues with the VPN connection:
- If I leave the firewalls enabled on both machines I cannot browse the network at all, neither in My Network Places nor by typing \\namePC\share. (my VPN server is configured with DHCP, so they assign IP - server and client - addresses like 169.x.x.x, whilst my internal network is 192.x.x.x. My firewalls both have File and Print Shareing pass through, even though on the Sygate firewall I cannot see the VPN adaptor (just phisical adaptors), so cannot make a rule for it).
- If I disable the firewalls, then I CAN access my shares with \\namePC\share, but My Network Places cannot see my Workgroup computers and browse nicely, with icons and frills through them.
- Is PPTP secure enough for such connection and to leave my network open through the VPN port/server? (It took me 3 days to find resources (for home users - novices - hobbists) and understand the setup of IPSec with preshared keys, just to find out one needs a static IP address to be setup in the IPSec policy...) Any suggestions? Thanks, Julian