[Solved] Unable to connect to servers hostname

[kasper]

I recently installed an openvpn network using the tutorials found on this site, however I seem to have an issue that I'm having trouble solving. I am a completely new to administering a server, so the problem could be an obvious one that I am missing.

I'm using the standard configs that come with the openvpn windows installer for both the server and the clients, but here they are for easy reference:
server:

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port 1194
proto udp
dev tun
ca ca.crt
cert server.crt
key server.key  # This file should be kept secret
dh dh1024.pem
server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0
ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
keepalive 10 120
comp-lzo
persist-key
persist-tun
status openvpn-status.log
verb 3

client:

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client
dev tun
proto udp
remote my-server-1 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
ca ca.crt
cert client.crt
key client.key
ns-cert-type server
comp-lzo
verb 3

Obviously I changed some of the locations such as IP and file locations back to default when posting the configs here.

I am able to connect without any problems, I can ping the server using the ip address 10.8.0.1 and even connect and browse the shared files using that ip.
The problem is that I cannot connect to the server using it's hostname. For instance, lets say the servers name is server1, I cannot successfully ping server1 and connecting to \\server1 also does not work.

The server is running Windows Server 2008, and the clients are running Windows 7 (I've tested on both 32 and 64 bit flavors).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[kasper]

Seems the problem also occurs when the client is running Windows XP.

[Bebop]

Did you follow 1 of these 2 guides: examples-f7.html
?
If so, those guides don't solve the problem of Windows DNS sharing (you can see they rely on Google DNS). Maybe the problem extends to Windows Name Server too, and hence your problem.

I've been on the lookout for a solution for a while now with nothing concrete.

I don't have enough first hand experience with with the Windows VPN environment to help you solve this one just yet. Await for one of the experts now.

[kasper]

I actually used this guide on the main page: http://www.openvpn.net/index.php/open-s ... howto.html

I'll take a look through the ones you posted and see if they do anything different that might help.

[janjust]

if network browsing via IP works , but not using the windows names then you need to set up or add a WINS server; if you have a WINS server on your LAN, which is reachable via the VPN (try pinging the IP address of the VPN server) then add

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push "dhcp-option WINS X.X.X.X"

to the server config; after that, the VPN client shoud pick up the WINS server and you should be able to do a

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nbtstat <name>

in a command console window on the VPN client.

[kasper]

I got it working. Thanks a ton for the help on the WINS server, thats exactly what I needed. Like I said, I'm new to being a server admin and never would of thought of that.

Here's everything I ended up doing in case it helps someone else. I changed the VPN network on the server from public to private (don't know if this helped, but figured it wouldn't hurt), enabled WINS on the server, and added

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push "dhcp-option WINS 10.8.0.1"

to the server config file.

Thanks again for the help.