Customer set up on SBS 2000, CEO travels a lot so set up
VPN on his laptop to get into the server for mail, shared
files, etc. All works as designed. He is now in Costa
Rica, and has high speed internet access available at his
condo but when firing the VPN (plain MS client) it hangs
while verifying the userid/password, and says he gets no
error message back. He also claims that he was in a
remote section of the country a few days ago and was able
to use dial-up (not sure to what number) and get access,
albeit very slow of course. My questions:

1. Does SBS remote access need to be configured to allow
a user in a foreign country access?
2. If so, was his dial-in experience most likely due to
dialing up a US phone number (again, not sure what he did
dial)?
3. If 1 and 2 are 'no', what should I try?
4. Could it be that his ISP doesn't allow VPN
connections?

Thanks.
____________________
Randy Knapp

Re: VPN Access to SBS2000 from overseas by Javier

Javier
Fri Apr 30 11:19:39 CDT 2004

> 1. Does SBS remote access need to be configured to allow
> a user in a foreign country access?

AFAIK, No. The internet is one big country :-)

> 2. If so, was his dial-in experience most likely due to
> dialing up a US phone number (again, not sure what he did
> dial)?

Most probably because he used a different ISP.

> 3. If 1 and 2 are 'no', what should I try?

Call the high-speed ISP or change to another one. See below.

> 4. Could it be that his ISP doesn't allow VPN
> connections?

Can he check if there is connectivity between the laptop an the server? A
simple ping/traceroute to whatever.yourdomain.com should work here.

One possibility is his ISP in Costa Rica is blocking protocol GRE47 (PTPP
passthough) somehow (or maybe TCP 1723). I think there is a way to test
this... if I find a link I will post it. However, it is unlikely that he is
not getting an error message back... at some point the VPN connectiod is
going to say something. I would make sure that he is telling you the truth
about the error :-)

--
Javier [SBS MVP]

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