Remote connection

[thekiddy]

Somehow I feel like this is a dumb question.

 

I am using a Cisco VPN. I can get through the gateway into school from my home PC and I can access my school PC (providing it is switched on and no-one is logged on to it) and then logon to the network in the normal way. My PC has a fixed IP address and I use that when starting a Remote Desktop connection from my home computer.

 

My question is, can I set up the remote connection so that I can get to a specific drive on the network without having to first logon to my school PC??

 

Thanks,

[ConradJones]

probably

 

whats the ip of the server and whats the share name ?

 

net use \\\ /user:\

 

 

replace the < > sections to suit your server ip / user name etc.

[thekiddy]

Many thanks, will give it a go!

[twin--turbo]

If you have the VPN correctly configured then your connected to the school network so no need to RDP to your desktop.

 

Rob

[thekiddy]

Hi Rob,

 

Our ISP told me the same and I thought I had it configured according to county procedures. If two people tell me the same thing it has to be right!! I can connect using the VPN providing I use RDP but can't do it using the VPN alone. I must be doing something wrong. The question is what???

 

Thanks for your support with this.

 

Steve

[ConradJones]

what exactly is the problem? what error messages do you get?

 

Its highly possible you are trying to access a server/resource whatever via the DNS name and you aren't resovling names via the dns servers at the other end of the VPN.

 

We used to get our internet from west sussex, they had a cisco VPN which worked great except for because the configuration was for the whole county it the VPN client used the councils DNS servers for name resolution not the schools DNS servers. Which basically meant you were fine if you accessed stuff via the IP Address instead of the DNS name.

[thekiddy]

Thanks Conrad,

 

I do not get any error messages. When I start the Cisco VPN from home it works and tells me I am connected to the school but I don't seem to be able to go anywhere from there until I start a remote connection from my computer and enter the fixed iP of my school PC. That works fine provided it is switched on and no-one else is logged on to it.

 

I set up the VPN exactly as instructed by the school ISP.

 

Steve

[ConradJones]

Steve,

 

When you say you aren't able to go anywhere? What do you mean by this? Are you expecting the VPN to map the drives for you?

 

Conrad

[thekiddy]

Ok, re installed VPN in frustration. I can now map drives providing I use IP address first. Thanks guys for your help.

 

Steve

[ConradJones]

You could add the names of the servers to your hosts file

c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

 

 

example

 

172.25.28.8 SERVER1 server1.mydomain.com