VPN on XP Pro - Cannot browse network

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:

  1. 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).
  2. 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.
  3. 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
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Julian
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Found myself the answer. Great site:

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Julian

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Julian

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