I'm using a pair of Linksys BEFVP41 VPN routers between two sites. We're trying to use XP file/printer sharing. We've enabled NetBIOS broadcast through the tunnel.

We can't see computers by name at either end of the tunnel, but we can access them directly by IP address.

Additionally, we can't print to shared printers at either end as we can't see computers by name. Hitting a printer via the IP addy of the computer it's attached to makes Windows gripe.

Any ideas/suggs?

Cheers

Lee.

Are the networks on each side of the VPN on different subnets?

If so, Netbios doesn't broadcast across different subnets. You would need WINS servers at each site and they would update each other to provide the NetBios -> IP Address resolution.

Stefan

Thanks Stefan. How do we go about setting up a WINS server (he asked ignorantly :) )

L.

You need some version of Windows server at both sites. Then it's just a Windows component added via the Add/Remove Programs applet.

This will add a WINS Manager to the Administrative Tools folder. You run that and just create a local WINS database.

Alternatively, if you have a server at only one site, you could install WINS on that, then on the workstations at the remote office you could configure them to use the remote WINS server for name resolution.

You could also just add the hostname and IP addresses of any printers into the local host table on all the workstations. Depends if you want to use Network Neighbourhood to browse both networks.

Stefan

This should show you some pointers.

It covers Windows 2003, but the theory is the same with previous Windows versions.

Stefan

Top bloke. So, if I understand you correctly, at (say) this end, we could have a machine (static IP) running (say) NT Server acting as a WINS server and get the 2-3 remote machines we want to browse looking at the WINS server?

Yes.

The 2-3 desktops will happily browse each other using local Netbios broadcasts. You can then add the remote WINS server into their TCP/IP configuration and it will use that to lookup remote Netbios names.

I'm not sure if it will show the remote PC's, printers and NT domain in the network neighbourhood though as that relies on the browser service to pick up Netbios broadcasts.

You can read all about the browser service here. Makes my head hurt just thinking about this stuff.

Stefan

This is horrible. I think we'll get WINS going on a Linux box and see what happens....

Alternatively you could use DHCP/DNS where all host names are published to DNS and all domain suffixes are the same.

Edited to add: in retrospect, although it would solve your remote host-ip lookup problems, I din't know whether it would sole the shared printer problems....

If your printers are TCP/IP printers on jet direct just create a separate queue from the 2nd subnet, problem solved :D

[Edited by ajm - 10/11/2003 12:29:35 AM]

[Edited by ajm - 10/11/2003 12:30:53 AM]