I would like to connect up a few machines via a VPN to be able to share drives and use Remote Desktop control.

I have:
1 PC at home behind Netgear router on 1Mb ADSL (WinXP)
1 PC at mates behind router on 2Mb cable (WinXP)
1 PC at work behind BT router on 512kbps ADSL (WinXP)
Assuming all IP addresses broadcast to WWW are dynamic.

Can anyone help in *really* simple terms to describe how I would go about setting this up ?

Cheers,
Dunk

 

doesn;t WinXP have a built in VPN setup wizard ?

 

I've just been through the wizard to set up the server on one PC, just need to test it out now from home. Was easier than I thought, hope it works

I'm a little confused how it would work if the server has a dynamic IP address though ? Can it be set up using a hostname instead, using dynamic DNS ?

 

I know you CAN use dynamic IP with VPN, but have never done it.

Anyone ?

 

use something like dyndns maybe ? inbound connection is just to an i/p or hostname

Remote desktop is v useful - even behind a router you just fwd the correct ports to the machine you want to connect to ( setting a source address in the firewall is a *good* idea ).

Steve

 

my netgear router deals with my dyndns updates!!

 

Worked fine connecting to the work PC using remote desktop, will try the other way next.

VPN seemed to work fine, but couldn't map any drives, not sure why.

 

for drive mapping make sure you have enabled file and printer sharing on your network connection and also on the VPN connection itself.

 

Just checked, so does mine Bonus.

 

I use RealVNC which is pretty good and FREE!

Port to open is 5900 on your router - also you can control a few machines if you allocate them all a different port - I connect to my Server at work to fix stuff that others mess up but can also connect to any of the machines on the internal network (LAN) including a Mac running OSX and one with OS9! Cross platform rocks