Can I use OpenVPN with a Windows Server domain?

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oshkosh
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:26 pm

Can I use OpenVPN with a Windows Server domain?

Post by oshkosh » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:46 pm

Hey everyone can't seem to find the answer to this. I have Windows Small Biz Server 2008 on one system and Asterisk on another. I installed OpenVPN on the asterisk box and it's great so far. I'm using the community edition for now I believe but will buy the better one soon as I need 5 users to connect. Anyway, I notice once I VPN in, I can't access domain resources, like I can't connect to the server share by typing \\companyshare or accessing Dynamics CRM from Outlook. I have to access everything by typing \\10.0.0.50 and can't use Dynamics CRM at all in Outlook since it wants to connect to the actual name of the server.

Is there a way to fix this, can't seem to find any info on that? Thanks!

arnotixe
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:30 am

Re: Can I use OpenVPN with a Windows Server domain?

Post by arnotixe » Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:21 pm

The problem is that windows doesn't use DNS to resolve hostnames to IPs (well, it uses DNS too, but it's messy). It uses some other protocol called NETBIOS NETBEUI or something.

Or it could be that your DNS isn't set up with the hostname of the server.

If you don't want to set up the servers in your DNS (as you should), you need to tell the windows machine about the WINS server:

Code: Select all

push "dhcp-option WINS 11.111.111.12" # add your own WINS server here
Some howto on Samba as WINS server (you only need one in your whole organization):
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/security ... pn?start=4

oshkosh
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:26 pm

Re: Can I use OpenVPN with a Windows Server domain?

Post by oshkosh » Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:06 pm

Hey thanks that makes sense. I'm not very technical though so just a couple questions. When you say my DNS isn't set up with the host name of my server, where would I check that? My DD-WRT router does all my DNS I believe, but Windows Server does DHCP.

It's really just my main server it's called companyserver and it's at 10.0.0.50 which is my Windows SBS 2008 server and then OpenVPN is on my Asterisk CentOS box at 10.0.0.75. I just really need the easiest way for OpenVPN to know that requests for companyserver should go to 10.0.0.50.

I'm not technical so not sure what I do with that push code you gave me... Just trying to figure this out so I can buy my user licences!

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