windows 7 vpn settings

spookywillow · 15 Jun 2010 at 22:49

can anyone help me setup a vpn please? i have ran the setup in windows 7 but i cant seem to get it to work and cant really find any helpfull guides anywhere.

im connected to a modem and the pc i want to connect to is behind a router but it has a setting for vpn passthrough and its enabled but i cant connect to either pc from the other.

PistolPete · 16 Jun 2010 at 12:07

It's a little unclear.

You want to be able to VPN to another PC from yours.

Has that other machine got a VPN server running on it or are you VPN-ing into the router their end that's running a VPN server?

Rabtech · 16 Jun 2010 at 12:54

If your using a VPN for personal use, use Hamachi - goto filehippo and download the 1.0.3.0 version.

Create yourself a private network with a password and add any machines you need to into this network. You then have the usual file/printer sharing and can even lan game over it.

The above works fine with Windows 7 32bit and 64bit so just ignore how old it is.

Dazza_Random · 16 Jun 2010 at 12:59

+1 for Hamachi its simple and it works

spookywillow · 16 Jun 2010 at 16:06

ahh ok guys, i was under the impression you run the setup in windows for vpn and then allow incoming connections and that was it.

i'll get hamanchi i think

@ pistolpete, i had 2 computers on a home network, i then moved out but wanted to keep the network running and after a bit of reading i found that i needed a vpn, windows 7 has that built in so i thought i'd just use that but its a little harder to get working than i thought lol

PistolPete · 16 Jun 2010 at 17:17

PPTP VPN client has been built in since XP but most people never used it.
It's not too hard to setup a MS VPN, but it's more hassle than Hamachi is.

wesley · 16 Jun 2010 at 17:31

dont want to sound stupid, i never had chance to play with VPN, but what's the different between RDC (remote desktop connection) and VPN?

i know VPN is very secure but that it?

FoxEye · 18 Jun 2010 at 01:43

Remote Desktop lets you control a computer remotely. You can run programs on the remote computer, using the remote computers CPU. Within the RD session, you can access files and program installed on the remote computer or network resources that the remote computer can see. If you copied a file to the desktop in a Remote Desktop session, you wouldn't have copied it to the machine you're sitting in front of, but to the one you're controlling.

A VPN is simply a way of connecting your local computer (the one you're sitting in front of) to a remote network, and having it appear as a local machine. AFAIK you get assigned an IP for the LAN you're connecting to. You could then use Remote Desktop over your VPN... It would be like using Remote Desktop from one machine in the remote network to control another machine in the remote network. The VPN just "fools" the network into seeing your local machine as a machine in the remote network.

I hope that's right, or I'm going to fail my Nework+ exam next week

Anyway, the more you look into it, the more complicated it gets. There are all sorts of things like Remote Access vs Remote Control, RDP, VNC, Direct Access Servers, RRAS, Remote Desktop Services Servers... and I'll be damned if I know exactly the differences between them. Hopefully someone here does

PistolPete · 18 Jun 2010 at 11:51

Mores to the point, a VPN is a secure connection tunneled over an insecure network.
Usually it's to extend / connect LANs across the internet but does have similar use not involving the internet too.