Problems access network resources via VPN

I have a few Windows XP computers set up in a temporary
remote office. Each computer has a third-party VPN
client installed that allows them to connect to the
company network through a SonicWall firewall.

My problem is that, after successfully connecting to the
network via VPN, some computers can only access network
servers by IP address and not name.

For example, Server1 has a shared folder called
Accounting. Some of the computers in the remote office
can access this using \\server1\accounting. Others,
including mine, can only access the share using its IP
address (say, \\1.1.1.1\accounting).

None of these computers has any problem when accessing
the network from the main office, only when through VPN.

Oh...and my Windows 2000 boxes can't even access network
share by IP address!

Any thoughts?

This clearly seems to be a Name Service issue. When connecting to your corporate VPN Server/Appliance, does it handle DHCP Services. If so, then make sure that the DHCP Server is propagating DNS/WINS down to the clients properly. If Primary & Secondary DNS/WINS servers is correctly handed down to the clients and the problem still exist, then it's a firewall issue...

Hope this helps...


"jdurand" wrote:

> I have a few Windows XP computers set up in a temporary
> remote office. Each computer has a third-party VPN
> client installed that allows them to connect to the
> company network through a SonicWall firewall.
>
> My problem is that, after successfully connecting to the
> network via VPN, some computers can only access network
> servers by IP address and not name.
>
> For example, Server1 has a shared folder called
> Accounting. Some of the computers in the remote office
> can access this using \\server1\accounting. Others,
> including mine, can only access the share using its IP
> address (say, \\1.1.1.1\accounting).
>
> None of these computers has any problem when accessing
> the network from the main office, only when through VPN.
>
> Oh...and my Windows 2000 boxes can't even access network
> share by IP address!
>
> Any thoughts?
>