VPN

MAC_Addy

Okay.

I know I'm very good with all peripherals when it comes to computers, i know how to write programs, i know windows xp and server 2003 like the back of my hand...

..but when it comes to VPN, i'm like a blonde trying to figure out the square root of 100.

I know how to setup VPN, i know all the ports it uses. I know what protocols it uses..

But, i just don't know what it does.

Now, from my understanding (please correct me if i'm wrong).

VPN is something that you can use to dial into your network from home, or on the road.
Its not like remote desktop, you just use your internet to access the data from the server, correct?

Now let me ask you this, when you connect to the server... where do you find the resources? Are they still in "Network Places". The reason I ask this, is that i set it up from home and i'm trying to access my network from work. I can connect with no problems, i just can't see my network shares.

I think I know the problem; and please correct me if i'm wrong again.

my home computer is running on a workgroup and my work is running from a domain. Could that be the problem?

Okay, i think i'll leave it here for now.

Cheers in advance.

mrhaun03

I'm not too sure how it works either but when I VPN in to the company network, then I remote desktop in to my work computer. That's how I access the network resources.

Ahriakin

Essentially a VPN provides an encrypted tunnel between endpoints, they can exist within LANs or over the Internet/WAN as you already know. Once the tunnel is formed correctly how you use it comes down to your network setup. NetBIOS will usually not work across VPNs as just about every endpoint out there blocks it, so browsing the network can be an issue but once you have set DNS and the correct IP details on your VPN setup (usually done at the office termination point) you can manually map drives or just use \\servername\share manually from the RUN prompt. When setup correctly you can treat your client as if you were plugged in locally at your office (Providing you haven't done anything odd with your VPN addressing/NAT/Access-Lists).