VPN - it can't be THAT hard (- can it?)

The VPN solution sounds perfect.. "just set up a tunnel through the public network for your private use..."

However, one can do a LOT of reading around a subject without getting to the nitty gritty of what to do.

This is one of those rare occasions, however, when I found a how-to summary that succinctly described what to do, without too much technical detail, but with enough of what you need to know to get it working.

Rather than rewrite Larry's words, I will quote his post in full here

http://forums.techarena.in/small-business-server/955926.htm

Oh - and to answer the question of browsing - simply map a drive on the client machine to \\ip.address.of.server\share using the domain authentication.

Easy.

24-04-2008

Larry Struckmeyer Posts: n/a

Re: VPN Connects but unable to browse Network HELP!! Hi: In general, I recommend RWW over VPN for connecting remotely. If you have a particular issue that requires a VPN connection, I would appreciate if you would share. To use VPN with your SBS you must first run the CEICW and permit that service to be used. Then run the RRAS wizard to setup the WAN ports. These are the second and third wizards on the To Do List in Server Management. You must have a router/firewall that has port 1723 forwarded to your SBS and that allows GRE 47 to pass. Some older devices do not allow this. And theother hardware related issue is that the SBS ip ranges and the remote ip range must be different. That is, if SBS is 192.168.16.x internal, and 192.168.100.x external, the remote cannot have the same numbers in the first three octets. Are there any specific errors in your event logs, or specific messages that occur And as always, I recommend the SBS BPA. Run that and do what it recommends. http://www.sbsbpa.com/ -- Larry Please post the resolution to your issue so that all can benefit.

Legacy commands

Don't you hate it when you come across really powerful quick ways of doing things, just when the OS they apply to is taking its last gasp and they are calling it "Legacy" already? (although I feel XP will be around for another 10 years!)

For example the control command in XP:

Now I have used it many a time, but only in the sense of overcoming XP Home's User Accounts limitation:

 control userpasswords2

which, by the way,  I can NEVER remember :)

Here are some more to add to your quick typing skills...

(thanks to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc144191%28VS.85%29.aspx?ppud=4) or to be honest, google's search ;)

Legacy Control Panel Commands

When you use the WinExec function, the system can recognize special Control Panel commands. These commands predate Windows Vista.

control.exe desktop	Launches the Display Properties window. Note Starter and Basic Editions do not support this command.
control.exe color	Launches the Display Properties window with the Appearance tab preselected.
control.exe date/time	Launches the Date and Time Properties window.
control.exe international	Launches the Regional and Language Options window.
control.exe mouse	Launches the Mouse Properties window.
control.exe keyboard	Launches the Keyboard Properties window.
control.exe printers	Displays the Printers and Faxes folder.
control.exe fonts	Displays the Fonts folder.

For Windows 2000 and later systems:

control.exe folders	Launches the Folder Options window.
control.exe netware	Launches the Novell NetWare window (if installed).
control.exe telephony	Launches the Phone and Modem Options window.
control.exe admintools	Displays the Administrative Tools folder.
control.exe schedtasks	Displays the Scheduled Tasks folder.
control.exe netconnections	Displays the Network Connections folder.
control.exe infrared	Launches the Infrared Monitor window (if installed).
control.exe userpasswords	Launches the User Accounts window.

NTFS, FAT FAT32 and large harddrives.

PROBLEM: connect a USB drive to a device that prefers FAT32 or FAT (and not NTFS).
Sub-PROBLEM: Windows cannot go bigger than 32GB using FAT32.
The possible solutions are copiously stated here: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/formatting-external-hard-drive-to-fat-32/, but I foundthe command line provided by http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm absolutley instantaneous.
Had I a Paypal account I would even have donated :)

Here's how easy it was.

Download and unzip

C:\>cd fat32f

C:\fat32f>dir
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 5F1F-5DF5

 Directory of C:\fat32f

06/01/2010  09:15 p.m.    <DIR>          .
06/01/2010  09:15 p.m.    <DIR>          ..
02/03/2009  11:47 p.m.            49,233 fat32format.exe
 1 File(s)         49,233 bytes
 2 Dir(s)  21,392,437,248 bytes free

C:\fat32f>fat32format g:
Warning ALL data on drive 'g' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure
(y/n) :y
Size : 40GB 78170242 sectors
512 Bytes Per Sector, Cluster size 32768 bytes
Volume ID is 1ce9:3957
32 Reserved Sectors, 9540 Sectors per FAT, 2 fats
1221111 Total clusters
1221110 Free Clusters
Formatting drive g:...
Clearing out 19176 sectors for Reserved sectors, fats and root cluster...
Wrote 9818112 bytes in 0.49 seconds, 18.94 Megabytes/sec
Initialising reserved sectors and FATs...
Done
C:\fat32f>