Cannot access or ping work PC over VPN connection

[san_fran_crisko]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone on Daniweb may be able to help me out with this problem I'm having:-

Since Thursday, people have not been able to access their work computers from home over a VPN connection. Users can authenticate through the firewall and register on the network (the server gives them an IP address) but when they try to access their PCs with remote desktop in XP or Vista, they cannot.

I was able to test this out yesterday evening and found that I could get through the firewall with no problem, but as described, could not access my computer - in fact, I could not even ping it. The only computer I could ping was the server (running Windows SBS 2003). Even at that, I could not use remote desktop - it just came up as a black screen.

Nothing to my knowledge has changed on the server and I have certainly not changed any settings. One interesting note is that a colleague was able to ping someone else's PC. I don't know why it should be different to any other machine, he able to do so but got the same problems I had with remote desktop - a black screen. Every other PC he tried he could not ping. I do not think he tried the server.

If anyone's ever heard of anything like this or has any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. :)

Thanks for your time,
Ciaran.

[HITMANOF44th]

did you reset your vpn endpoint ? that and i would just make sure the firewall is just not being stupid with itself

[san_fran_crisko]

did you reset your vpn endpoint ? that and i would just make sure the firewall is just not being stupid with itself

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Many users cannot access this and see the same symptoms. As for the firewall, on Wednesday it was our old Watchguard and it happened and on Thursday it was our brand new Netasq and it still did the same. I can definitely rule out the firewalls.

[Frank Wallis]

According to my understanding, if you are able to enter the private
network of ur company using VPN,then firewall cannot be a problem.
The problem resides within the local network of your company.

Which OS are you using on your home computer?

[san_fran_crisko]

Just to update this - it was a random system update on Win Server 2003 that effected the terminal services - once we updated again remote desktop sessions were restored.

[Sman95]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone on Daniweb may be able to help me out with this problem I'm having:-

Since Thursday, people have not been able to access their work computers from home over a VPN connection. Users can authenticate through the firewall and register on the network (the server gives them an IP address) but when they try to access their PCs with remote desktop in XP or Vista, they cannot.

I was able to test this out yesterday evening and found that I could get through the firewall with no problem, but as described, could not access my computer - in fact, I could not even ping it. The only computer I could ping was the server (running Windows SBS 2003). Even at that, I could not use remote desktop - it just came up as a black screen.

Nothing to my knowledge has changed on the server and I have certainly not changed any settings. One interesting note is that a colleague was able to ping someone else's PC. I don't know why it should be different to any other machine, he able to do so but got the same problems I had with remote desktop - a black screen. Every other PC he tried he could not ping. I do not think he tried the server.

If anyone's ever heard of anything like this or has any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. :)

Thanks for your time,
Ciaran.

If you can only ping the server, my first guess would be that your switch/router's or whatever you are using as the backbone for you network could be down. Try and ping that gateway or run traceroute (go to start/run and type cmd) tracert on Windows or mtr on Linux. That will at least let you know if your hardware is up and running.