PPTP
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Short for Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol, a new technology for creating Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) , developed jointly by Microsoft Corporation, U.S. Robotics, and several remote access vendor companies, known collectively as the PPTP Forum. A VPN is a private network of computers that uses the public Internet to connect some nodes. Because the Internet is essentially an open network, the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is used to ensure that messages transmitted from one VPN node to another are secure. With PPTP, users can dial in to their corporate network via the Internet.
Howto: Proper PPTP VPN Server setup
For the best results the "Server IP" should be the same as the router's LAN IP address.
- So for example, if your router's IP address is 192.168.1.1 enter this ip address into the "Server IP". Do not be alarmed that the IP addresses are the same.. There will be no conflicts on the router. The only reason why you would select a different IP address in "Server IP" is if you want to setup a complex VPN infrastructure with your own route's on both sides of the VPN connection. (This is the reason the setup allows you to choose your own IP for server and clients.)
Now for the "Client IP"... Please select 10 or 20 ip addresses in the same subnet that are not used by the router or DHCP server...
- For example: If the router's IP address is 192.168.1.1 and DHCP is setup to serve ip addresses from 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.150 you can choose any addresses between 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.99 and 192.168.1.151 to 192.168.1.254. So if you enter 192.168.1.10-20 in the "Client IP" it should be ok!
- When you setup the VPN connection on a Windows XP computer make sure you deselect “Use default gateway” under the TCP/IP properties of the connection. You don’t need it no matter what anyone says. The only reason you would want to have this on is to allow the VPN client to use your internet connection. This is pointless really because this will incur double the traffic on the router's internet interface. The connecting client already has the connection to internet (this is how it is connecting to the router in the first place).
- Routing is setup automatically by XP and the PPTP VPN Server.
After you follow these steps the connecting VPN client will be able to ping ALL hosts on your network, Wireless and LAN.