I am running the built-in VPN server in Vista Home Premium. I have then connected my Mac to a different network and attempted to access that VPN server from the Mac using my PC internet connection's public (actual) IP address, and it doesn't work. It tells me it cannot connect to the PPP server. The Mac is behind an Airport Extreme that I have no control over. It is using the 10.x.x.x address group. The PC is behind a Linksys WRT54G router, using the 192.168.x.x address group. On the PC side, I have tried both port forwarding and putting the PC into the DMZ. No matter what, the Mac gives me the same error message when I attempt to connect. I have tried with the Vista firewall on, with exceptions for VPN, and with the Vista firewall completely off. Since it's Home Premium I can't run the RAS Control Panel, as is suggested by several support pages. When I add the VPN server as an incoming connection, it adds the RAS item in my Network and Sharing Center. This is listed as Private and with "Limited Connectivity." I don't know how to change that. The only options I am given are Private and Public (and icon). Also, I don't know how to change the encryption type. The Mac allows me to choose automatic, for 48/128bit, or none. All of the websites I checked said that this works quite easily. Any suggestions on how to make this connection work correctly? Thanks.

Hi, Thank you for posting. At this time, perform the following to check the issue: 1. Put another Windows Vista computer on the MAC machine's network and try to connect to the target Windows Vista computer to see if it works. If it works, it should be MACs problem. 2. If the problem persists, you can move the Mac to the same network as the target Windows Vista computer, disable firewall on both sides and then try the VPN connection again. Please let me know the results of per step. Meanwhile, please also enable the RAS logs on the Windows Vista computer: RAS Logs ======= Note: The logs need to be collected before you start the connection setup. Execute the following from elevated command prompt on both computer(the one works and the one fails). 1. Run netsh ras set tr * en (without quotes). This enables logging. 2. Recreate the issue. 3. Run netsh ras set tr * di (without quotes). This disables logging. This will generate log files in the %windir%\tracing directory. Please upload the log files to Windows Live SkyDrive (http://www.skydrive.live.com/) and share the URLs with me. Thanks. Nicholas Li - MSFT