Hi
I am using Checkpoint VPN-1 to connect a few of our home users to the
company network. They connect either through their local ISP dialup
connection or an ADSL broadband connection.
When connected, they are able to ping any IP address within the network
through the VPN, but are unable to browse any shares.
\\servername does not work. I get the error "there are currently no logon
servers available to service the logon request"
net use \\servername gives the error "System error 53 has occurred"
They can ping server names provided the server is added to the hosts file.

I don't get why they cannot see the network shares.
Is this a "Client for Microsoft Networks" problem? The computer I tested
this on did not have a firewall.

Any advice as to what may be the problem would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Alan

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News wrote:
> Hi
> I am using Checkpoint VPN-1 to connect a few of our home users to the
> company network. They connect either through their local ISP dialup
> connection or an ADSL broadband connection.
> When connected, they are able to ping any IP address within the network
> through the VPN, but are unable to browse any shares.
> \\servername does not work. I get the error "there are currently no logon
> servers available to service the logon request"
> net use \\servername gives the error "System error 53 has occurred"
> They can ping server names provided the server is added to the hosts file.
>
> I don't get why they cannot see the network shares.
> Is this a "Client for Microsoft Networks" problem? The computer I tested
> this on did not have a firewall.
>
> Any advice as to what may be the problem would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks
> Alan

Sounds like your clients are not setup to connect with the naming
services inside your network.  IE: Internal WINS server and DNS server.

When the client is connected to your network they will not be able to
browse the network in network neighbourhood fashion.  Browsing can be
made to work on VPN links but it is not easy and not very stable because
browsing uses broadcast traffic extensively to build those browse lists.

There is extensive information on name resolution and browsing here:
http://unknownegg.org/tech/index.htm




--
WARNING!  Email address has been altered for spam resistance.
Please remove the -deletethispart-. section before replying directly.
Mike Drechsler (mike-newsgroup@-deletethispart-.upcraft.com)

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

News wrote:
> Hi
> I am using Checkpoint VPN-1 to connect a few of our home users to the
> company network. They connect either through their local ISP dialup
> connection or an ADSL broadband connection.
> When connected, they are able to ping any IP address within the network
> through the VPN, but are unable to browse any shares.

That is normal. You won't be able to browse to the shares.

> \\servername does not work. I get the error "there are currently no logon
> servers available to service the logon request"

To be expected unless the home machines are in the domain, which they
probably are not.

> net use \\servername gives the error "System error 53 has occurred"
> They can ping server names provided the server is added to the hosts file.
>
> I don't get why they cannot see the network shares.

two reasons - you can't browse the shares becaiuse yuou won't see the
netbios broadcasts since you are on a different subnet and not part of
the domian and likely the client machines at home also are not set up to
use the company DNS and WINS servers.

You can't get into the network shares beacuse you are not authenticated
to the servers yet.

> Is this a "Client for Microsoft Networks" problem? The computer I tested
> this on did not have a firewall.

No. It's behaving as I would expect from what you describe.

>
> Any advice as to what may be the problem would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks
> Alan
>
>

What happens if you try:

"net use * \\servername /user:domainname\username"

That should force it to authenticate correctly - should come back and
ask for a password.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

"T. Sean Weintz" <strap@hanh-ct.org> wrote in message
news:10lm0326sc0s3f3@news.supernews.com...
> News wrote: 
>
> That is normal. You won't be able to browse to the shares.
> 
logon[vbcol=seagreen] 
>
> To be expected unless the home machines are in the domain, which they
> probably are not.

They are in the domain - they are laptops.

> 
file.[vbcol=seagreen] 
>
> two reasons - you can't browse the shares becaiuse yuou won't see the
> netbios broadcasts since you are on a different subnet and not part of
> the domian and likely the client machines at home also are not set up to
> use the company DNS and WINS servers.
>
> You can't get into the network shares beacuse you are not authenticated
> to the servers yet.
> 
>
> No. It's behaving as I would expect from what you describe.
> 
>
> What happens if you try:
>
> "net use * \\servername /user:domainname\username"
>
> That should force it to authenticate correctly - should come back and
> ask for a password.

I get "System error 67 has occurred" which basically means it can't find the
network name.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Thanks for the link - a good site to refer back to...
True, the clients are not using the internal WINS server or DNS as the ISP
dialup is using DHCP and naturally using their naming details. Unfortunatly
the ISP i am using (their own custom software(iPass)) will not let me add a
WINS entry, so I may never getthis to work if this is the case.
I'll try with another ISP (freeserve or something) and see if that works.
Thanks for the feedback.
Cheers
ALan



"Mike Drechsler - SPAM PROTECTED EMAIL"
<mike-newsgroup@-DELETETHISPART-.upcraft.com> wrote in message
news:tmC6d.235002$yk.40303@news.easynews.com...
> News wrote: 
logon[vbcol=seagreen] 
file.[vbcol=seagreen] 
>
> Sounds like your clients are not setup to connect with the naming
> services inside your network.  IE: Internal WINS server and DNS server.
>
> When the client is connected to your network they will not be able to
> browse the network in network neighbourhood fashion.  Browsing can be
> made to work on VPN links but it is not easy and not very stable because
> browsing uses broadcast traffic extensively to build those browse lists.
>
> There is extensive information on name resolution and browsing here:
> http://unknownegg.org/tech/index.htm
>
>
>
>
> --
> WARNING!  Email address has been altered for spam resistance.
> Please remove the -deletethispart-. section before replying directly.
> Mike Drechsler (mike-newsgroup@-deletethispart-.upcraft.com)

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]