Super noob with VPN's

[Drummerdude]

So, Of the utmost basics, I'm wanting to be able to access my shared folders on my work computer, from my laptop. While I'm on the same network,obviously it's as simple as \\mycomputer\shareddrive, but from my understanding, a vpn basically let's you do the same thing, regardless of where in the world my laptop is at, as long as it's online. So, can anybody here walk me through setting up a VPN? Also, as I'm sure the info is needed, my work computer is on DSL, and where I live, it's not possible, without spending huge sums of money, to get a static ip. Would I need to setup some sort of dns or something, or? I'm suuuper lost here.

I actively use Teamviewer for controlling my work computer ( and others ), and I've tried using the teamviewer vpn, but when I have it open the vpn connection, it doesn't seem like it works. I can't access any shares, unless I'm doing something wrong?

Any advice ( preferably not links ) would be super helpful!
Thanks!
DD

 

[Drummerdude]

After searching a lot more, I found a pretty simple solution. A free, and very basic vpn software from Hamachi. instead of their logmein software, they offer just a straight up vpn solution. My question, is now that I can access my work computer shares via \\workcomputer\shares, how can I access the rest of the computers at my office? Would I have to install the software across all my computers, or can I maybe bridge the Hamachi VPN connection and the ethernet connection on my work computer to give me access to the rest of my network shares?

 

[grendel19]

Isn't Hamachi part of logmein? If so, they no longer have the free version. In your case, I believe you would have to install the software on all the PC's you plan on connecting to. Then register those within your Hamachi account. So when you log into your Hamachi account, you should be able to just select the PC you want to connect to and that's it.

A real VPN solution is a bit more complex. You'll need to two end devices to form a VPN tunnel (these are always up). This would cost a lot more than logmein, and you'll have to manage it yourself. But you will have much more control over what's allowed over the tunnel. If that's something you don't need, services like logmein works just fine.

Or remote access VPN would work too. Then all you need is one end device and the client software on your laptop.

 

[SecurityTheatre]

Uhm, if they're on the same LAN network, they should be able to share files. No VPN required.

It sounds to me like you have the Windows firewall turned on, or some permissions issue with file sharing (or perhaps file sharing is disabled on one of the machines).

Obviously, if you want some sort of remote access to the files, a VPN could do it, but if you're a 'noob', I don't recommend it, they're not trivial to set up. Just use Go2MyPC or something like that... It should have a file transfer option.

 

[Drummerdude]

Uhm, if they're on the same LAN network, they should be able to share files. No VPN required.

It sounds to me like you have the Windows firewall turned on, or some permissions issue with file sharing (or perhaps file sharing is disabled on one of the machines).

Obviously, if you want some sort of remote access to the files, a VPN could do it, but if you're a 'noob', I don't recommend it, they're not trivial to set up. Just use Go2MyPC or something like that... It should have a file transfer option.

When my laptop is on my work network ( physical, either wired, or wireless ) then it access my shares no problem. What I need, is to be able to access the same network shares ( multiple computers ) without physically being there. I leave all the computers on during the week, so that's not an issue. But when I'm at home with my laptop, I need to still be able to access the same files, albeit slower because of on an internet connection, via your typical \\server\sharedfile.exe access route. From what I've seen in the past, as long as you have a vpn server ( such as a router/physical firewall ) with a built in vpn, or a physical server, and your remote computer runs client side, then you can tunnel into the network via constantly running vpn, client, and access all of your computers from there.

I know that several years back, there is/was a company that created a physical firewall ( in line after modem ) that had it's own vpn host built into it, and you could install the vpn client onto your computer, log onto your work network from your home computer using the vpn client, and from there, you could access all computers and their shares on your work network, just using that.

Anyway, all that to say, I"m wondering if it's doable without having to have a sonicwall, or equivalent, and maybe just running a vpn server type setup on my work server, and go from there.

 

[grendel19]

Anyway, all that to say, I"m wondering if it's doable without having to have a sonicwall, or equivalent, and maybe just running a vpn server type setup on my work server, and go from there.

I think you can do that with Microsoft RRAS. But I've never worked with Microsoft VPN before, so can't give you any pointers there. You would probably need to have dual NICs or port forward from your router to the RRAS server. I'm sure there are other software-based VPN that can do something similar.