VPN help please! Can connect but cannot see shared drives?

[pyrojoe34]

So I setup a vpn server in Win 10 home by creating an incoming connection, port forwarding 1723 to the vpn server, and setting up the security.

To test the VPN I connected to my neighbors wifi with my laptop, then connected to the vpn server and checked my IP address. It worked! I was showing up as my home IP address rather than my neighbors.

 

Here's the problem: I can't see any of the shared folders on my network. When I am on my network I can see them fine and the server can see my laptop when it's connected via VPN. However, my laptop cannot see any of the shared folders or even any of the devices on my network, it can only see the devices on my neighbors network.

 

Any ideas? What am I doing wrong? I have never set up a vpn or server before so I know nothing about networking. Every google search I've done on the issue has not helped me at all. I feel like I'm probably missing something very obvious.

[ENiX]

I'm not sure what your using for your VPN server but you'll probably want to make sure allow split tunnel is disabled and that the two networks are not on the same subnet.

[pyrojoe34]

1 minute ago, ENiX said:

I'm not sure what your using for your VPN server but your probably want to make sure allow split tunnel is disabled and that the two networks are not on the same subnet.

Just some old parts of mine that I am turning into a NAS/vpn server (see sig). Where do I find those settings? Is that in my router on the "server"?

 

All this stuff is over my head, I have essentially no networking knowledge aside from setting up a basic home network.

[ENiX]

9 minutes ago, pyrojoe34 said:

Just some old parts of mine that I am turning into a NAS/vpn server (see sig). Where do I find those settings? Is that in my router on the "server"?

 

All this stuff is over my head, I have essentially no networking knowledge aside from setting up a basic home network.

Setting up a VPN system can be very complicated and rarely just works. I would suggest reading though the documentation for your elected VPN server application. Are you having trouble getting to the NFS\SMB share by IP address?

[pyrojoe34]

2 minutes ago, ENiX said:

Setting up a VPN system can be very complicated and rarely just works. I would suggest reading though the documentation for your elected VPN server application. Are you having trouble getting to the NFS\SMB share by IP address?

I tried to put the ip address and folder path directly into the address bar in explorer on the connected laptop but it says it can't find it (can't find the device or anything). I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible, just using the built in tools in Windows which worked fine in making the vpn act as a proxy but I have no idea how to make my laptop think it's on the home network so it can access network folders.

 

I was hoping it would be as easy as 1. connect to vpn 2. computer thinks I'm on the network and works like it does when I am, so I can just access shared folders.

 

I thought I may be missing something obvious but I guess it's just more complicated than I thought, thanks for the help anyway.

[brwainer]

Do the IP addresses of your network overlap those of your neighbors network? For example, are both routers using 192.168.1.1? If so, then when you are on your neighbors wifi but connected to the VPN, and ask you computer to go to 192.168.1.25 for example, it won't know which network to access

[wraptor]

I've setup my network to 10.69.x.x/16, this means almost everybody can use my vpn from anywhere because most people use 192.168.x.x and sometimes 172.16.x.x,
If you are using OpenVPN (Thats what I'm known with) try adding the following line to the server config file:
push "route subnet subnetmask"
Example: 
push "route 10.69.21.0 255.255.255.0"

You need to make sure that the VPN-Client's local subnet doesn't overlap the VPN-Server's subnet, this as @brwainer already stated will result in the VPN-Client not knowing which one to use.

Hope this helps you out and if you're not using OpenVPN than.... Sh1t me

[pyrojoe34]

13 hours ago, brwainer said:

Do the IP addresses of your network overlap those of your neighbors network? For example, are both routers using 192.168.1.1? If so, then when you are on your neighbors wifi but connected to the VPN, and ask you computer to go to 192.168.1.25 for example, it won't know which network to access

That's a great question, I will have to look into it when I get home. I just tried to log into my vpn from work but it won't connect now (worked fine yesterday), might just be a firewall on the work network though.

[pyrojoe34]

23 minutes ago, tv15dsi said:

I've setup my network to 10.69.x.x/16, this means almost everybody can use my vpn from anywhere because most people use 192.168.x.x and sometimes 172.16.x.x,
If you are using OpenVPN (Thats what I'm known with) try adding the following line to the server config file:
push "route subnet subnetmask"
Example: 
push "route 10.69.21.0 255.255.255.0"

You need to make sure that the VPN-Client's local subnet doesn't overlap the VPN-Server's subnet, this as @brwainer already stated will result in the VPN-Client not knowing which one to use.

Hope this helps you out and if you're not using OpenVPN than.... Sh1t me

Thanks for the help, I was trying to keep the vpn all native using the built in Windows option but I may have to look into a 3rd party option if I can't get it to work. I will try to change my network internal IPs when I get home, thanks.

[wraptor]

4 minutes ago, pyrojoe34 said:

Thanks for the help, I was trying to keep the vpn all native using the built in Windows option but I may have to look into a 3rd party option if I can't get it to work. I will try to change my network internal IPs when I get home, thanks.

Are you hosting this on your windows client? Because if thats the case than you are probably means you are using PPTP which as most people already know isn't a good option anymore, It's been cracked  already and I don't trust it anymore even though its been 'patched'.

I really like using OpenVPN because its free, open-source and above all, uses SSL certificates for a 'premium' security.
Keep in mind: OpenVPN requires you to install the client on every machine, its not build in to the os AND it currently has NO support for Windows Phone.

It has support for Linux, Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.

There are other 3rd party VPN software out there, which I'm not familiar with.

Hope this helps you out making a choice :Þ

[pyrojoe34]

6 minutes ago, tv15dsi said:

Are you hosting this on your windows client? Because if thats the case than you are probably means you are using PPTP which as most people already know isn't a good option anymore, It's been cracked  already and I don't trust it anymore even though its been 'patched'.

I really like using OpenVPN because its free, open-source and above all, uses SSL certificates for a 'premium' security.
Keep in mind: OpenVPN requires you to install the client on every machine, its not build in to the os AND it currently has NO support for Windows Phone.

It has support for Linux, Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.

There are other 3rd party VPN software out there, which I'm not familiar with.

Hope this helps you out making a choice :Þ

I am and it is PPTP... I didn't realize it was compromised. Does OpenVPN allow you to see and access network drives and shared folders when connected to the vpn?

[wraptor]

13 minutes ago, pyrojoe34 said:

I am and it is PPTP... I didn't realize it was compromised. Does OpenVPN allow you to see and access network drives and shared folders when connected to the vpn?

I wouldn't recommend hosting a VPN server on a Windows Client unless this machine is been used as server... but then, Why not Windows Server?
If it is your Desktop/Laptop/Etc then it wouldn't run 24/7 I guess.

You can share network drives and stuff like pptp etc can, it just requires you to setup the vpn correctly.

EDIT: I've found a tutorial to setup both the server and the client, it's for Windows Server but works on a normal Client aswell. The client config is also thesame for windows clients.

Tutorial by Bobby Allen: http://blog.bobbyallen.me/2016/02/07/setting-up-openvpn-server-on-windows-2012-r2/