VPN works fine, pings both ways; can't map drive letter.

[gary5199]

OpenVPN on a virtual Windows XP client in Parallels, connecting fine with OpenVPN on a Rackspace cloud server ( Win Server 2003 R2) using the IP addresses issued by OpenVPN on the server. Status and logs look good.

But Windows Explorer on XP can't "find" the server to map a simple drive letter to a shared folder on the server. And Windows Explorer on the server can't find the client. Is there an obvious change to be made, a firewall setting or something?

Thanks for any input!
Gary

[krzee]

can you map it if you use the IP instead of netbios name?
if so, you need a WINS server (or use the ip)

[gary5199]

Sorry; should have mentioned that. Neither can see the other, either by hostname or by IP address.
(I gather from your question that you - like me - would expect it to work. That's encouraging!)

[janjust]

before attempting to use windows explorer and drive mappings , first make sure the VPN is fully functional. From the vpn client verify that
* routing is enabled on the server (in case you need to reach other machines on the server-side LAN)
* no firewalls are blocking access
* you can ping the VPN address of the server (usually the .1 address)
* you can ping the LAN address of the server

if *that* works then your VPN is more or less functional and then we can start thinking about why explorer/smb/drive mappings don't work.

[gary5199]

Thanks, Jan. Good comments. By duplicating the cloud server OpenVPN settings on a computer inside my local network, I've determined that drive mapping works fine over OpenVPN, and confirmed the syntax of the mapping request and login.

So the issue appears to be that SMB traffic is blocked somewhere as it leaves my network. Since the VPN should hide its content from my local router firewall -- right? -- I will first assume the Win 2003 Server firewall at the other end is preventing mapping, after the traffic emerges from the VPN pipe. I'll dig in from that perspective.

Customer meeting in 18 hours. Sure would like to have it working before then!

Regards,
Gary

[gary5199]

Update:
Disabling the firewall on the server eliminates the problem. Windows XP client can map drive letters to shared folder on server, if firewall is off. Ouch.
Extensive work experimenting with ports on the firewall, digging in Microsoft and other forums and tech docs, and discussion with cloud vendor have not yielded the specific port info needed to get a complete drive mapping process through the firewall.
Many, many posts on this problem in various places. Longstanding issue, apparently.
Given known issues with XP, I'll test further when a Win7 box is accessible.
Thanks for comments! Looks like the OpenVPN side of things runs perfectly, and the issues are all with Microsoft.

Gary

[janjust]

you don't have to turn off the entire firewall; in most cases it's sufficient to not firewall the tap-win32 adapter.

I'm a bit confused why the firewall on the server would be affected by the choice of the client (XP vs Win7). XP uses either port 445 or 139 to connect to a server (in that order). Win7 has a strong preference for port 445 (but can be made to cooperate with port 139 as well).