Networking question: Win 7 remote desktop + VPN

[Cakemeister]

Hello,

I have a Windows 7 box and a Windows XP box. The XP box is headless. I would like to use Windows Remote Desktop to get into the XP box and then use VPN to log onto work. This is because any machine logging onto the corporate network has to be super clean, ie. no P2P, etc.

Anyway, the remote desktop part works. But when the VPN connection is established from the XP box, the remote desktop connection is severed. This makes sense, I guess, because there is a new IP address for the XP box.

Is there any way to do what I am trying to do?

TIA,
CM

[ChadTower]

Can you reestablish the remote desktop connection after the VPN is in place?

[2600]

Can you use a virtual machine instead of a dedicated XP box?

[ChadTower]

What is the difference between the two for this purpose?  VPN is still going to redo the IP.

[2600]

No remote desktop.  You can run the VM from the Windows 7 box and actually use the "XP box" instead of having to remote desktop into the XP box.  The VM will get a new IP, but at that point it's behind the scenes and doesn't matter.

[Cakemeister]

That's an interesting idea. There's a new version of VirtualBox available.

There would be some setup involved, but the payoff would be to get rid of the XP box (it is fairly noisy and consumes power).

[2600]

FYI, VMware Player is free and now supports the option of making VMs.  There is also Microsoft's solution which is free and they have a premade XP VMs available.  That is there solution to Windows 7 and XP compatibility.

I thought you may like the power saving idea.

[ChadTower]

It'll have to be a pretty beefy box to do that well if he plans on running a full XP VM and a full Windows 7 with P2P and such going.  Might even have to do that with two NICs.

[2600]

I'll admit I'm a bit spoiled with PC Hardware, but you don't really need that beefy of a box.  RAM is nice to have especially when you are on a laptop that has a slower HD.

[ChadTower]

Honestly, in this situation, I'd just use a laptop as the VPN client.  I do that all the time at home.  The machine I use to VPN in to work is corporate issue so it's a laptop.  Sits on the same LAN as everything else in my house but is isolated because of the VPN connection to corporate.  Switch with a regular A/V switcher.

[Cakemeister]

I got the VirtualBox install to work. I created the virtual machine, installed Windows, Office, and the VPN application. Everything was superdy-duper until I tried connecting with the VPN. No joy. The VPN client must be detecting the virtual machine because I can VPN with another machine.

[ChadTower]

That's why I said you might have to use separate NICs to have truly independent IPs.  I'm not 100% sure how the IP routing works on a VM.

[2600]

I have no experience with VirtualBox.

I know using a VPN inside a VM works and you do not need a separate NIC.

Under the VM applications I've used, most recently VMware, when you select a "bridged" type networking configuration the host OS and the VM OS each have a different MAC address and IP.

What was the problem with the VPN?  Did networking work before you tried the VPN software?  I assume you installed the VPN application in the VM OS and not on the host.  With the VPN application I use, you have to install your VPN configuration files as well so I assume you did that or whatever is the equivalent.

[Cakemeister]

I don't recall the exact error that the VPN spit out. But Internet and stuff works fine from the VM.

VPN in installed on the VM, not the physical machine. The VPN is a Cisco application.

I have several extra NICs lying around, I can try using one. Non-gigabit, but that shouldn't matter. I guess I would need to tell the physical machine to use the original NIC and the VM to use the second one. Not sure how to do that.

[ChadTower]

I have no experience with VirtualBox.

I know using a VPN inside a VM works and you do not need a separate NIC.

VPN complicates things.  It reassigns IPs.  There could easily be some sort of resource conflict using the same MAC after the VPN is in place.  Maybe he just hasn't sorted out the configuration yet, as you suggest.

[2600]

I have no experience with VirtualBox.

I know using a VPN inside a VM works and you do not need a separate NIC.

VPN complicates things.  It reassigns IPs.  There could easily be some sort of resource conflict using the same MAC after the VPN is in place.  Maybe he just hasn't sorted out the configuration yet, as you suggest.

Yeah, there are usually 3 different network configurations you can set the VM up with.

1. Bridged - Host and VM have different IPs and are basically 2 different PCs.  By default you should use this.
2. Only see the Host OS on the Network.
3. NAT or Share Host IP- This one is where they share the same IP and things can weird.  I avoid this one as much as possible.


I'd avoid putting in a separate NIC.  It's a bit of a PIA to tell the VM which NIC it is suppose to use and not always documented well by the VM Developers.

[Cakemeister]

Yeah, there are usually 3 different network configurations you can set the VM up with.

1. Bridged - Host and VM have different IPs and are basically 2 different PCs.  By default you should use this.
2. Only see the Host OS on the Network.
3. NAT or Share Host IP- This one is where they share the same IP and things can weird.  I avoid this one as much as possible.

Ah-HA!!! That's what was missing. I changed the network connection form NAT to Bridged and the VPN started working.

   

[ChadTower]