hostname or ip address for vpn - SOLVED

[1howmanyunamesaretaken?]

Hey XP geeks!

I'm working on a network here where the router is leasing IP addresses dynamically to all machines connected to it.

I was wondering if it was possible to set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) from a laptop to this network. The laptop would not be connected to the network directly, but through the internet.

I guess I need to get a hostname or static ip address for one of the machines on the network (or maybe the router?) and set the vpn on the laptop.

Who knows how to get a static IP address or hostname?

Edited July 19, 2006 by 1howmanyunamesaretaken?

[rendrag]

why do you need an IP of a machine on your network? If you want your external IP (you couldn't use an internal IP anway), just go to www.whatsmyip.org

for a computer on your network hostname = computer name

Right-click My Computer > Properties > Computer Name, and look at Full computer name

[1howmanyunamesaretaken?]

So I tried it out and, sadly, it didn't work.

Come to think of it, what happens if my computer name was used by another person on the internet?

Take a comp name like Jes2021 that I and another person on the net named their computer. How will the OS know which computer to connect to remotely?

About the IP address, I went on whatismyip.com. I did it on more than one computer on the network and it always gave me the same IP address. Does that mean that the IP address is see is the one for my router as seen from the outside?

[eyeball]

this is easy. you can enable VPN connections to an XP machine by running through the new connection wizard and selecting advanced connection.

now set a static ip on this machine of for example 192.168.1.100

forward on the router all traffic for port 1723 to 192.168.1.100 and now go to www.showmyip.com

goto a friends house and create a vpn to your IP showmyip gave you and enter the username and password, voila!

only thing is if your IP is dynamic then you may want to sign up at dyndns.org as you will be able to use a static hostname instead of your dynamically changing IP address

thanks

[1howmanyunamesaretaken?]

Eyeball, thanks! Your advice was clear and helpful.

I assigned a static IP to the comp I'll be connecting to. I also redirected port 1723 to that IP using the router's config GUI. All I need now is to get a domain name from a Dynamic DNS provider. I checked showmyip.com and they give me, for a one-shot 7.00$, a domain name that is refreshed (remapped to the dynamic IP from my ISP) every half hour and they do it all server-side.

Anyone know how they identify my WAN IP without me connecting to their website or server?

Anyone know of a web group that does this for free?

[Littlebr00k]

You should have gone to http://www.no-ip.com. You can sign up there for free, forever. On their site, once you have signed up with your email address and password go to the downloads section and download Windows Dynamic Update Client. Install this on the machine you want to connect to, then create a host on the www.no-ip.com, (which will be something like 1howmanyunamesaretaken?@no-ip.org. you can pick any name / domain you want from a list. A few are free and some are pay for, a free one is all you need.) Enter your email addy and password into the dynamic update client, this will then pull in the hostname you have created, put a tick in the box next to your hostname so it updates when the ip changes, choose how you want the client to run eg on startup, as a service, no gui etc and save your setting.

You pc is now accessable by the hostname you created from anywhere on the internet eg http://1howmanyunamesaretaken?@no-ip.org.

Hope this helps

[eyeball]

no probs dude, glad i could help. also iv never tried no-ip.org but iv heard good things so give it a go im sure it will all work for you

[1howmanyunamesaretaken?]

ok, so I went on no-ip.com and I got a free domain name. Now I had previously set my router to redirect any requests to port 1723 to the private ip address of the computer I want to connect to.

Using the Domain Update Client (DUC from no-ip.com), my domain name is up to date with my wan dynamic ip address. When I tried the VPN on windows from within the network, it didn't work.

Is that normal?

Oh, and on this other site (reg.ca), when managing my domain names, they bring me to a window that looks like this:

(follow link) http://www.eazyshare.com/user_uploads/regcaGUI.JPG

In the case of no-ip.com, what is the DNS name? What does the DNS Name textfield correspond to in the reg.ca GUI? And under IP Address (reg.ca GUI), should I enter the IP Address that my ISP has currently assigned to me?

[eyeball]

if the VPN server is 192.168.1.100 and you go to another pc on the network (e.g 192.168.1.101) and try to create a VPN to 192.168.1.100 it should work.

try it and let us know what happens (also XP firewall may be an issue, so disable it initially )

[1howmanyunamesaretaken?]

Here it is...

Got IP addresses automatically for 2 workstations using DHCP.

Disabled firewalls on workstations 192.168.0.107 and 192.168.0.114 .

Created new VPN connection from 0.114 to 0.107 .

In "Connect cname" window, entered the uname and passwd info for 0.107 .

Hit Connect.

And ...

Got error 800.

"Unable to establish the VPN connection. The VPN server may be unreachable, or security parameters may not be configured properly for this connection."

Note from July 19th 2006:

SOLVED: Refer to 2nd thread on same issue.

Edited July 19, 2006 by 1howmanyunamesaretaken?