can a netgear router plus VPN client do this??

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.vpn (More info?)

Oh great VPN experts, I desperately need your help!!

We presently have a Netgear FVS318 router that is looking after the
networking for our small office network. We bought this router with
the idea that it would also allow remote VPN connections into the
windows network of our office. We purchased 5 Netgear Prosafe VPN
clients.

Now a computer consultant says that it is impossible to set up the
remote VPN connection into the network. Is he correct??

Here are the details ...

At the office we have a very simple configuration. One FVS318 router
connected to the internet. Out ISP has assigned the router a fixed IP
address.

All IP addresses in the office are assigned using DHCP by the single
FVS318 router. We do not have a Primary domain controller. All
computers are just members of a windows work group. The computers are
running XP and 2000.

While on the road, hotel networks and wireless providers typically
assign IP addresses using DHCP.

Has anybody had success in confuguring a Prosafe client to establish a
VPN tunnel so that I can join the windows network while on the road?

thanks for all your help.

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.vpn (More info?)

Mike,

Thanks for the info. I am going to post a follow up question about
capabilities without a DNS server.

thanks!

Mike Drechsler - SPAM PROTECTED EMAIL <mike-newsgroup@-DELETETHISPART-.upcraft.com> wrote in message news:<4kjld.4964509$6p.806460@news.easynews.com>...
> picard wrote:
> > Oh great VPN experts, I desperately need your help!!
> >
> > We presently have a Netgear FVS318 router that is looking after the
> > networking for our small office network. We bought this router with
> > the idea that it would also allow remote VPN connections into the
> > windows network of our office. We purchased 5 Netgear Prosafe VPN
> > clients.
> >
> > Now a computer consultant says that it is impossible to set up the
> > remote VPN connection into the network. Is he correct??
> >
> > Here are the details ...
> >
> > At the office we have a very simple configuration. One FVS318 router
> > connected to the internet. Out ISP has assigned the router a fixed IP
> > address.
> >
> > All IP addresses in the office are assigned using DHCP by the single
> > FVS318 router. We do not have a Primary domain controller. All
> > computers are just members of a windows work group. The computers are
> > running XP and 2000.
> >
> > While on the road, hotel networks and wireless providers typically
> > assign IP addresses using DHCP.
> >
> > Has anybody had success in confuguring a Prosafe client to establish a
> > VPN tunnel so that I can join the windows network while on the road?
> >
> > thanks for all your help.
>
> Your consultant is an idiot, fire him. Unless you were asking only
> about browsing the network remotely. (Ask a stupid question, get a
> stupid answer I guess)
>
> Without a domain controller and WINS server you will not be able to
> "browse" the network but as long as you remember the internal IP address
> of the computer you want to connect to then you will be able to connect
> directly via the IP.
>
> If you wanted to get the ability to browse the network for cheap then
> you could setup a linux server with SAMBA to emulate a domain controller
> and service WINS requests. Another popular choice is to have your work
> computer running Windows XP Pro and then use the remote desktop feature
> to remote control it via the VPN. Then you would be able to "browse"
> while remote controlling the machine since it is part of the LAN and
> will be able to resolve the rest of the network using broadcast packets.
> You can still use DHCP but you would probably like to reserve the IP
> address for the internal machine to make sure that internal IP doesn't
> change.
>
> Back to your question. I have heard that tech support for using the
> client software with those routers is very bad but it does work.
> There are some baseline configuration guides at:
> http://www.vpnc.org/InteropProfiles/
> This should help you understand the options.
> Documentation is available at:
> http://kbserver.netgear.com/produc [...] VPN05L.asp