[thebrewskieman81]

A friend and I would like to setup a VPN connection so that we can share files easier since we both don't live under the same roof. She gets her broadband connection through her apartment where she lives and so I'm not quite sure what kind of setup they have. I on the other hand since there's more than one computer in the house I'm at, I have a D-Link DI-524 wireless router to connect all of the computers together to my Cable connection and we both have Windows XP Home Edition. So far I've done everything that this website (Windows Networking) has said to do to my computer. I also think I have configured my D-Link wireless router correctly so that it will allow the connection.

So the problem lies on her side I think. According to the site, after she gives the connection the name, she then comes up to the next window that asks her to choose either "Do not dial the initial connection" or "Automatically dial this initial connection" The site (click here) shows us to click on "Automatically dial this initial connection" and then there's a drop down menu that lists the available connections you can make. According to her, she says it only gives her MSN something. Even though I figured it wouldn't work we went ahead and selected it & finished the steps. It came back saying it couldn't connect. So I told her try to click on "Do not dial the intial connection" first just to see. Got the same results which I figured would happen.

Please Please someone help me. I'm about ready to throw my computer out the window haha. Not really, but you know it feels when you want to so badly want to do something and its not going your way.

Well thanks ahead for any help. My friend I really do appreciate it.

This post has been edited by thebrewskieman81: 22 April 2006 - 02:30 PM

[RogueSpear]

If your main goal is file sharing, then take a look at BitWise. It's definately the best way to go for that.

[thebrewskieman81]

Cool program I do appreciate you suggesting that to me. I might take that under consideration if I don't get any other responses. Actually that gave me a thought to another question I have. Is there a free (perhaps open source) program [VPN for dummies maybe lol] out there we could download?

[RogueSpear]

Well there's OpenVPN, though I've never tried it personally. I stick with Cisco VPN for client to network connections. For network to network VPN setups, Linksys has a pretty bomb proof solution aimed at the home and small office segments.

[thebrewskieman81]

Ya I've heard of OpenVPN before and actually been to that site yesterday. I thought about it, but since I'm not really great when it comes to networking I'm a little cautious on trying to download a program that might change mine or hers Internet settings causing either one of us to having Internet connection issues. If I messed up her computer and don't know how it all came about she'd have my head on her wall lol. And I wouldn't blame her. Buying something from Linksys would be the way to go if I had the money to blow on something we could technically live without, but also in saying that if we did I still wouldn't know on how to getting it to work especially when I don't know how or what kind of hardware the Internet connection she's getting from her apartment have.

This post has been edited by thebrewskieman81: 22 April 2006 - 05:10 PM

[RogueSpear]

I had recommended BitWise because that way you wouldn't have to mess around with all of this stuff, particularly if the main goal is file sharing. Keep in mind what it is you would like to accomplish. If you're transferring files over a VPN connection by simply copying them via Windows Explorer, you'll be fairly disappointed the first time a 100MB file craps out at 95MB done and you have no resume function. BitWise on the other hand has an autoresume in case a transfer dies on you.

If there's something else you'd like to do, there's probably an easy way to accomplish that as well, like port forwarding on each of your routers. If you need to do RDP for instance, just forward port 3389 TCP/UDP on each router. It just seems that setting up a VPN for fairly simple stuff is like killing a mosquito with an elephant gun.

[thebrewskieman81]

Ok that's something I didn't know about VPN. That would definitely tick me off if I came close to receiving a file from her and the connection was lost. If I did download BitWise would it allow me to share folders with her and she can go in there anytime she wants to retrieve a file? Or do I always have to allow the connection to take place?

[RogueSpear]

It's configurable so that your "trusted" contacts can just snag files at will When you first do it, it's a little confusing in that it looks as though someone needs to authorize something, but it works great. This is actually how I transfer files from my work computer and home computers. I have a VPN connection going in the main internet connection, but my desktop computer at work is multihomed, so BitWise allows me to offload file transfers to the secondary internet connection. It's not a half bad IM client either. It's now even "portable" in that you can put it on your USB flash drive and run it from there.

[thebrewskieman81]

Thanks for the fast response. I think you've sold me on it and if I didn't know any better I would think you were the owner of the program lol just kidding. But seriously I'm fixing to install it now and see how easy it is to setup and if I think it'll be easy to tell her I'll go ahead and keep the program. Thanks again.

[RogueSpear]

No I don't have anything to do with BitWise other than being an end user. I wish more people used it though so I could ditch MSN, Yahoo, etc. It's just such an incredibly tight, clean, simple and secure program, I really can't say enough good things about it. Oh and the price is right too.

[JuMz]

Easiest VPN solution is to use Hamachi!

http://www.hamachi.cc/

Absolutely Awesome.

[RogueSpear]

JuMz, on Apr 22 2006, 07:06 PM, said:

Absolutely Awesome.

It sure looks like it. Going to have to give this a good test drive. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

[thebrewskieman81]

RogueSpear, on Apr 22 2006, 07:25 PM, said:

It sure looks like it. Going to have to give this a good test drive. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Me too as well. When I get a chance I'll talk to her what I've learned.

[Ghostrider]

JuMz, on Apr 22 2006, 08:06 PM, said:

Easiest VPN solution is to use Hamachi!

http://www.hamachi.cc/

Absolutely Awesome.

You beat me to this suggestion, it was my 1st choice too...

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

Whats a good VPN program for win98SE?
I tryed Microsoft L2TP/IPSec VPN Client v1.0 32-bit but it only supports dial up
and i don't have dial up.Your support is necessary.

This post has been edited by PROBLEMCHYLD: 29 April 2006 - 04:20 AM

[Gouki]

You can try Hamachi, however, I don't know if it supports Windows 98 (try searching in the forums).

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

I tryed, it dosen't

[RogueSpear]

Well my love affair with Hamachi has ground to a screeching halt. I've been trying to connect to the network now for a couple of hours. It keeps telling me that the volume is too heavy or something like that. This blows.