[VPN] Where is my network?

[William D McNeese]

The two routers involved "block" the broadcasts that are necessary for
the NetBIOS broadcasts to propagate between the two networks, therefore
"clicking on network neighborhood" will be un-reliable at best and
incomplete all the time.  The real issue here is name resolution across
multiple subnets (the subnets are essentially defined by the router
placement).  One critical question would be "are these machines members
of a common domain, or are they in work groups?"   If they are in
workgroups I'm not sure how the issue can be resolved easily.  If they
are in a domain (NT VS WIN2K) there are some solutions.  If they are in
workgroups, the lmhosts file may be your best answer, however there are
some syntactical issues to be aware of.

An lmhosts file is read upon boot and when needed for name resolution.
It isn't read when you double click on network neighborhood.  To get the
machines to appear in network neighborhood you need to use the #PRE
extension in the lmhosts syntax.  For example:

192.168.0.1  mymachinename #PRE
192.168.0.2  mynextmachine #PRE



This will pre load the information into the NetBIOS name cache upon
boot.  Make sure you have checked the box that indicates you want to use
an lmhosts file.

Some other syntactical issues.  The #PRE is case sensitive.  There must
be at least 1 space between the parameters on a line (it can be a tab or
multiple spaces). There must be a carriage return, line feed at the end
of the last entry.

Since the #PRE entries only get read upon boot, you either need to
reboot after making a change to the lmhosts file or issue the command
nbtstat -R (the R is case sensitive).  This should purge and reload the
NetBIOS name cache.

Keep in mind that Microsoft is trying to get rid of NetBIOS (this is why
it is so hard to find network neighborhood on XP).  XP still supports
it, however some of these steps may be a little more difficult to
implement on XP (for example I'm not sure where the "Use lmhosts" option
is).

Let me know if this helps!

-----Original Message-----
From: Nate Harel [mailto:nharel at nettech-services.net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 11:48 AM
To: vpn at lists.shmoo.com
Subject: [VPN] Where is my network?


Hi all,

Forgive my question if it is silly, but I am a relative novice in VPN
and 
have run into a bind I can't seem to resolve.

Let me set up the scenario:

I have two small offices set up with a local network and router each.

Office "A" has 3 Win2K machines and a Netgear router on a 
workgroup  (called MyNet) internal network 192.168.0.x

Office "B" has a similar setup, with Win2K and WinXP machines, a Netgear

router and a workgroup (also called MyNet) internal network 192.168.1.x.

I set up a VPN outgoing connection (using the Microsoft VPN connections
- 
PPTP) from B's WinXP machine to A with A generating the address for the 
incoming VPN connection to 192.168.0.100.

All was working well in that B connected to A and was able to transfer 
files etc. I was never able to "see" the A network from B, but I could
map 
a drive to A's machine. So that was OK.

I then experimented with the following. I changed B's network address to
be 
192.168.0.x.  I made sure that no addresses overlapped so each was
unique 
between the two locations.

I was then able to "see" network A with all its computers from the WinXP

machine on network B.

Yay!!!

But now I can't see the internal B network at all. Doesn't even see
itself 
on the network. If I disconnect the VPN connection and click on Network 
Neighborhood, I get an error message
         "Network B is not accessible. You might not have permission to
use 
this network resource... The list of servers for this workgroup is not 
currently available."

I tried flushing DNS, turned off the VPN, uninstalled the TCP and 
reinstalled. Nothing works. I can't even ping one of the local machines.

What did I do wrong? and why is it that I can see the remote network but

can't see the local one?

I have Netbios over TCP enabled, I am experimenting with LMHOST, but not

sure why I would need it for local machines.

HELP!!!





                 ----------------------------------
                             Nate Harel
                         NetTech Services
                           56 Pickering Street
                   Needham, MA  02492-3198
                       Tel:  1-781-559-8176
                   Toll Free: 1-877-567-8936
                      FAX:  1-877-567-8936
                 Email:  nharel at nettech-services.net
                      www.nettech-services.net
                      www.OnlineRemoteBackup.com
                      www.VirtualOfficePhone.com
                      www.nettech-hosting.com

                 ----------------------------------

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