Hey all, I was wondering if someone could help me with a little problem. Basically, I have a VPN set up, in which certain directories on the VPN server are shared over the LAN. Now, I have a client (nickname client A) which I configured to connect to the VPN; however, that client is unable to access any network shares at all. I have successfully made this work on another computer (nickname client B), in which it's working fine (it can access all shares). It seems that client A can ping the VPN server once connected. Client A can also ping client B if the windows firewall on client B is disabled (both are connected to the VPN and the pinging was done through the VPN). Similarly, client B can ping the VPN server and client A if the windows firewall is disabled. If the firewall is enabled on either computer, they can't ping each other. Client A cannot access any shares on either the VPN server or client B. However, client B can access shares on VPN server and client A. Furthermore, it isn't possible to share any files or directories on client A. It simply fails. And the last piece of knowledge I have is that client A cannot access any resources and the troubleshooter doesn't help (it simply says it cannot find any problems). Client A is running Vista, client B is running Windows 7 and the server is running Windows Server 2008 R2. Both client A and B have public ips (except for a private IP through the VPN). If anyone has any insight into this, I would be eternally grateful. Thanks.

on the client A turn off the firewall.. Also check if client A has permissions to access the shares.Regards, h9ck3r.

let the network discovery be turned on in client A.Regards, h9ck3r.

on the client A turn off the firewall.. Also check if client A has permissions to access the shares. Regards, h9ck3r. I tried turning firewall off. That doesn't help. Also, yes, client A should have permission to access the network shares. Actually, I tried connecting to the VPN on client B using the same username and password that I use on client A, and it all worked as it should. The VPN is set as a Home Network which should mean filesharing, discovery, etc are on, I believe.

what i feel is the issue now is not with the permissions related to account, its with the client A, something is blocking client A to access to the shares.Regards, h9ck3r.

That would be my guess, but I don't know what.

Hi, What kind of error message did you receive when you were trying to access the shared files on Server? Also, You may use Network Monitor to check what kind of behaviors happen during accessing server. Download Network Monitor at http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=4865 I assume that this may be caused by the SMB ports which is blocked by a 3rd party software. Please make sure all the firewalls and anti-virus software is temporarily disabled for testing. Please 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.

Firewall and anti-virus does not interfere. Process Monitor shows absolutely no network activity at all when trying to connect. Wireshark shows lots of SSL traffic (obviously since it's passed over a VPN). Which means I can't watch for the SMB port. Network Monitor I haven't used before, though. That is one thing I haven't been able to use to analyze. What should I watch for? Oh, and the error message is your basic "Windows can't access XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX."

Hi, According to your description, this should be caused by the SMB connection that is blocked. Please make sure there is not any other 3rd party software to block SMB.Please 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.

I have been unable to gain physical access to the computer causing the problem until now, but after a lot of googling, I finally found the problem. I got the error "The specified network provider is invalid" (or something along those lines) when trying to access computers on the network (typing the computer name directory, such as \\Computer just failed to work). Googling on the problem, it seems that the problem was that the "Client for Microsoft Networks" component was not installed, which was critical for operation. So right-click the network connection and going to properties, then clicking Install, selecting Client and then clicking Add, then finally selecting "Client for Microsoft Networks" and OK installed the component and everything was fine.