Trying to make my PC function as a home/work development machine
Hi, I have a Windows 7 (Ultimate) PC that I was using at my old (and currently part-time) job. It was part of an AD domain (run through a win2K3 SBS server) and I still have my user account set to the same domain settings I was using at the office. I can connect through a SonicWall VPN and it is as if I was still working in the office. Everything works great there. Also, I can get to the file share on my home server (also Windows 7 Ultimate) by typing \\<severname> into the Start button search box. So that works, too. My problem is that I can't get to other things on my home server box. For example, I have SQL Server 2008 installed on my home server but I can't connect to it via my PC. Also, I have IIS 7 installed on my home server but I don't seem to be able to connect to anything hosted there through IE 8 on my PC. I would like to be able to use this PC as a development machine both for home projects and for work projects. I also have a laptop that has the opposite problem - it can use all of my home resources but when I connect to the VPN with it, it can't connect to SQL Server or IIS sites at the office. I assume this is all related to my domain/user account settings. My desktop PC is set up as a domain user account and my laptop is set up as part of my home group at home. What I need is to be able to set up my desktop to be able to access both sets of resources (if I can also set up the laptop that way, so much the better - it's Win 7 also so assumedly what would work with one will work for the other). Is this possible? If so how can I go about that? I can provide more info if necessary. Thanks, Dennis
October 31st, 2011 3:52pm

Hi, According to your description, I assume that all the issues you have are caused by the connections that are blocked by some software such as firewall. Please disable all the firewalls for a test. Also, you can use Network Monitor to check the Intranet connection. http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=4865Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 2nd, 2011 3:28am

Thanks Juke. I wasn't able to try this last night - family stuff came up. But I should be able to try it out tonight. My initial thought is that I don't think it's firewall-related. But I will try turning off Windows Firewall on my PC and see if that clears it up. If so, I'll work backwards to find out what configuration changes I need to make to be able to turn WF back on. I'll let you know. Thanks, Dennis
November 3rd, 2011 10:23am

Well I shut off Windows firewall on all machines and still no dice. It feels to me like it has something to do with the domain setups, as my PC which is setup as a domain user is able to access everything I need on the domain (when connected via VPN) but cannot connect to the same resources on the home network while the laptop which is setup on the local homegroup can access all home resources but cannot access the same resources on the domain (even when connected via VPN). I could easily be wrong here but that's what it feels like to me. Anyone have any other ideas? I can send other info if necessary. Ultimately, what I need is for my PC to be able to access the following on my home network (without disturbing my ability to access anything on the domain): * Web sites/services hosted via IIS 7 on my home server * SQL Server hosted on my home server * Remote desktop to my home server Thanks, Dennis
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 4th, 2011 2:18pm

As to issue #1 (connecting to websites/services on my home server) I ran a tracert and noticed that on my domain PC it is trying to resolve my call to http://<servername> as <servername>.<domainname>. Obviously, that is going to fail. On my laptop (part of my homegroup) it resolves simply as <servername>. Is there a way to get it to not append the domain name when trying to resolve that call? It needs to be conditional because when I am connected to the VPN and trying to call http://<workservername> I actually do want it to resolve as <workservername>.<domainname> (incidentally, I'm guessing this is why my laptop can't pull up the sharepoint site on my work server when connected to the VPN - because it's not tacking on a domain name). Anyone have any ideas here? I don't know how this relates to the other 2 issues - I'm trying to take this one thing at a time. Thanks, Dennis
November 5th, 2011 8:38am

Well, it looks like it was a DNS issue. I noticed that I was able to access the web server by IP address. I don't know if I fixed it the "right" way but by adding an entry to my hosts file for that IP address, I was able to get everything I need working for me. Just wanted to put this out there in case it helped anyone else. Dennis
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 7th, 2011 8:27am

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics