qdog007

Issue resolved!! Here is what I did. I got my laptop and set its IP to 192.168.2.x and hook it up to the switch. I ping my Dell and got a Time-Out. I then ping my IBM and got a reply. Conclusion: my IBM is OK...so now I can focus entirely on my Dell. On my Dell, I figure the NIC was acting up. I went to Device Manager, uninstalled my NIC, reboot the system, and it works!! It was the NIC or the driver that is the problem...although it didn't give any indication. But suffice to say, I am one happy camper right now. Thanks to all for trying to help me.

Thanks jftuga. I am downloading Ethereal right now. I hope it is easy to use. I really like to know where my packets are going. Doing a tracert doesn't show anything. Thanks for the advice.

Mr.Snrub: Thank you so much for the detailed response. I am at work right now, but when I get home, I will try out some of your advice. I like your address scheme setup...it makes a lot of sense. Note: I have a local DNS running on my Dell...that is why I have the PCs pointing to it for name resolution. This DNS server is configure to forward all Internet name resolution to my ISP's DNS for resolution. It is also use to resolve internal names. But, yeah....I think maybe RRAS is the culprit and will check them out when I get home. Thanks for your help and I will provide an update on the situation soon.

Snrub: That is what I thought too. If your PCs are on the same subnet, then their gateway can be left blank and they can still talk. But thanks for the response: Here is my Ipconfig/all output. Thanks for everyone's help. Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Dell Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : qnetwork.com Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes Ethernet adapter Interface 2.1: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-4C-A0-94-D2 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100 192.168.2.100 Ethernet adapter Interface 1.100: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controlle Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-11-32-28-2D DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100 192.168.2.100 Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : IBM Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : qnetwork.com Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes Ethernet adapter Interface 2.100: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-48-54-62-96-67 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.100 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100 192.168.2.100 One final note. Yes, both machines are running RRAS. That is because I was going to set up some static routes later on. Should I disable these? Also, I don't have a ISA server. I have a NAT Server, but this is running on another machine on the 192.168.1.X subnet. Let me know if you need more info. Thanks.

MMX: I set the NIC to itself, but they still can't communicate. If the 2 machines are on the same subnet as specify by their IP and subnet mask and they are connected via a simple switch or hub, then they should be able to ping each other. Even if there is no default gateway. I mean, they are on the same network. Right?? That is why I can't figure this one out. It is just a simple setup. Oh..and the reason I have 2 NICs in my Dell is to make it a router. I use it to learn about routing--for educational purpose. Puedo: The switch is not a smart switch...just a simple 4-port switch. It doesn't have an IP address. Thanks for all your help thus far. I will try to post a diagram of my network when I get a chance. In the meantime, please provide any input. Thanks.

The default gateway of one my Dell's NIC(the 192.168.2.1) is blank. It is left black because my Dell has another interface, which is 192.168.1.100. This interface's default gateway points to my NAT server (for Internet acccess) which is 192.168.1.1. On my IBM, the default gateway of my NIC (192.168.2.100) is 192.168.2.1. So, the setup looks like this: NAT(1.1)---Dell NIC1(1.100)||Dell NIC2(2.1)---switch-----IBM NIC(2.100). This still baffles me. Initially I thought it was a gateway problem too, but it seems that this is the correct configuration. Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!! Q

Thanks for the reply. The Linksys switch have no DHCP capability. I have replaced it with a simple D-Link switch and still no communication between the two machines. So i am ruling out the switch as being the problem. Also the cables are fine. I would love to hear any input regarding this.

This is driving me up the wall. Ok…here’s the deal. I have a Dell with Windows 2003 Server and it has 2 NIC’s—but the one that I am concern with has an IP of 192.168.2.1. This is connected to a Linksys switch. I have an IBM (also with Server 2003) that is also connected to that switch. The IBM’s NIC has an IP of 192.168.2.100. Both of these IP addresses are statically configured. The cables, switch, and NICs are working fine...double-checked on them. Both machine indicated that its NIC are indeed “Connected”. But for some reason, they are not able to communicate with one another. I can’t ping either machine from either computer. I have no idea what is going on. There is no firewall on either machines. Both have the same subnet mask. They are on the same subnet…yet can’t ping. Why? Can somehow please tell me how to troubleshoot this? Any advice here would be great. If you need more info, then I’ll be happy to provide more. I just can’t think of anything at this point. Thanks. Q

Good News!! I am happy to report that I finally got the VPN client to connect to the public side of the VPN server. The problem was that ZoneAlarm Firewall was installed on the XP machine. It was preventing a connection to an IP of 15.15.15.15. To resolve this, I shutdown this firewall and got VPN connection. An alternative and probaby better solution is to configure ZoneAlarm's Firewall to 'trust' connection to 15.15.15.15. Glad to resolve that issue. But that's only half the battle. Now, it's time to try this over the actual Internet. Hopefully, it will work without any problem. Thanks to all. Q

I still cannot get a VPN connection through my Public Interface. I have taken my network off the actual Internet and am configuring a home network environment. This is what my setup looks like. DC/DNS/DCHP computer (IP of 192.168.1.100) is connected to a hub which is then connected to my VPN's Private Interface (IP of 192.168.1.1). The VPN's Public Interface (static IP of 15.15.15.15) is connected to another hub which is then is connected to my VPN client (an XP machine configured with a static IP of 15.15.15.20). Obviously I am trying to simulate an Internet environment using the second hub. So again setup is: DC--hub--VPN--hub--vpn client. On the VPN server, RRAS is configured for basic VPN parameters..using the Wizard. There is no NAT or any firewall to complicate the connection. It configure to use PPTP port only. The VPN client is set up using the VPN client connection wizard. The security parameter all matches with the VPN server(tunnel-type & authentication type). A vpn client account is created and given permission for remote access. When I try to connect to 15.15.15.15, I get an error code 800: vpn unreachable or security parameter is misconfigured. So I try to ping 15.15.15.15 and is able to do so on the XP machine. The weird thing is that when I try to connect to 192.168.1.1 instead of 15.15.15.15, I was authenticated and got a VPN connection. So basically I can get a connection on the private interface but no the public interface. Can someone please explain what is going on here?? I pretty much set up my environment exactly as instructed in some of the tutorials, yet I still cannot connect. It doesn't make any sense to me. What am I missing here? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I really want this to work, but it is getting very frustrating. Thanks for reading. Q

Thanks Arrow...Thanks Club. I'll give both of your suggestions a try. Will be back to post update

Hey..thanks for the response. My VPN/NAT server is connected to the cable modem and is also my firewall. The Linksys used to be my NAT router, but now it simply serve as a Access Point between my VPN/NAT and Domain Controller machine. The setup is like this: DC---Linksys WAP--VPN/NAT Server--cable modem--Internet ISP. On RRAS, my WAN/public Interface's properties seem to be pre-configured for VPN connection by default. On the "Service and Ports" tab, the following service to be provided to Internet users are checked: IP Security(IKE NAT and IKE NAT Traversal), VPN Gateway(L2TP/IPSec), and VPN Gateway(PPTP). So I assume that my VPN Server is set to receive connection. Am I correct on this or do I need to configure more? I check my public IP and it is 24.x.x.x and when I dial-up to the internet on my notebook, i can get to the internet using whatever public IP that ISP give me. But I still can't connect to my VPN server. ..can't connect to 24.x.x.x. Why do you think the problem is? Is there anyway to find out if I am even able to reach my VPN server? Please..any advice is greatly appreciate. Thank you!! Q

Hi all...Ok..long post...but please bear with me. Here's the deal: I am having problem setting up a VPN connection using PPTP tunneling protocol.First of all, let me give you an overview of what my home network setup looks like. I have a Windows 2003 Server as a DC,DNS,and DHCP server. It has one NIC with a private IP of 192.168.1.100. This NIC is connected to my Linksys Wireless Access Point(for WiFI connection around the house). THe IP of the Linksys is 192.168.1.10. This WAP is connected to my VPN/NAT Server. The VPN/NAT server is an old PC running WIndows 2003 Server with 2 NIC - one private and one public. I have already setup VPN/NAT configuration for this machine in the Routing and Remote Access Console. My VPN/NAT Server's public NIC is connected to a cable modem and it is getting a dynamic IP. I made a note of this IP and it hasn't change a long time--might as well be static. This public IP is 24.x.x.x SO everything is fine as far as VPN Server connection is concern. Now on the Domain COntroller machine, I create a user 'John Doe' and on his dial-in property, I check "ALLOW Acess" for remote login. So far so good. Finally, I go to my laptop and create a VPN Client Connection using the wizard. I use the same user's credential as before. The VPN Server IP is also configure correctly. Also the authentication mode(MS-CHAPv2) and tunnel-type is the same as the VPN server. Now the moment of truth, I use my dial-up modem to connect to the Internet and start up my VPN connection. Error!! Oh no...."Remote computer not responding" I double check everything to make sure the configuration matches...but still no connection. Can someone please help?? If you need more info, I am more than willing to supply them. DO you see any crucial steps that I am missing out here? Any kind of advice will be greatly appreciate. Thank you!!