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    Accessing Windows shares

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved OpenVPN
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    • P
      peterclo
      last edited by

      My pfsense/OpenVPN setup works fine, I can ping computers on my LAN by IP or DNS name (I push the DNS server to the client) and I can use Remote Desktop to connect to a Windows XP machine. However I can't directly access Windows shares or shares on a Linux based NAS. Using \machine\Share or \192.168.1.20\Share doesn't work, I get an error message saying the network path wasn't found. Shares work when you're directly on the LAN of course.

      Does anybody know what's going on?

      Sorry to ask here when it's not really a pfsense problem (I think) but I can't register on the OpenVPN forum for some reason.

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      • S
        SFM
        last edited by

        Do you have a WINS server running on your windows network?

        Push the WINS server to your vpn clients.
        Make sure the servers with shares have the wins server in there TCP\IP properties.

        push "dhcp-option DNS 10.66.0.4"
        push "dhcp-option DNS 10.66.0.5"
        push "dhcp-option WINS 10.66.0.8"

        SFM

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        • P
          peterclo
          last edited by

          Ah I see, my current VPN setup (Netgear router) doesn't need any WINS server, I take it OpenVPN does. I'll set a WINS server up then. Thanks a lot!

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          • P
            peterclo
            last edited by

            Ah well, adding a WINS server didn't work either :( I found something here: http://brneurosci.org/linuxsetup71.html (two thirds down, just above Part 2).

            It does look like my problem though he can access a computer on the LAN by typing its IP, which I can't.

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            • S
              SFM
              last edited by

              Are you using UDP or TCP?

              I know when I used UDP it would work from some locations but not others.
              Once I changed to TCP I had no issues connecting to shares.

              Are the servers you have shares on using the pfsense as the gateway?

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              • P
                peterclo
                last edited by

                I'm using UDP, I'll try switching to TCP.

                And yes, the servers I'm trying to connect to are using pfsense as the gateway (I'm not going to fall for that one again :D).

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                • P
                  peterclo
                  last edited by

                  I tried switching to UDP but same problem. I can ping an IP, ping a DNS name, connect to a Windows XP SP2 client through Remote Desktop but not access shares using \IP or \DNS_Name :(

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                  • S
                    SFM
                    last edited by

                    I have one more idea.

                    Are you connecting with windows xp service pack2?
                    If so you may have to disable the firewall on the ovpn device to get things to work properly.
                    You can leave the firewall on all other adapters just disable it on the openvpn adapter.

                    Xp with service pack2 and the firewall and openvpn have some issues. You can check out openvpn.org for more information.

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                    • M
                      Mikhail
                      last edited by

                      @SFM:

                      I have one more idea.

                      Are you connecting with windows xp service pack2?
                      If so you may have to disable the firewall on the ovpn device to get things to work properly.
                      You can leave the firewall on all other adapters just disable it on the openvpn adapter.

                      Xp with service pack2 and the firewall and openvpn have some issues. You can check out openvpn.org for more information.

                      You was right, thanks!

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                      • P
                        peterclo
                        last edited by

                        The client I am using has a ZoneAlarm firewall installed and I had defined the TAP adapter as a Secure Zone so it shouldn't be firewalled. EXCEPT IT WAS! I completely disabled the firewall and I could instantly access my shares…

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                        • D
                          dairaen
                          last edited by

                          cheers,

                          i will add all solutions & fallbacks to the tutorial
                          so we can prevent further problems like these.

                          will be online next week.

                          kind regards
                          dairaen

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