VPN Client

[imadoofus]

Help!

I am in a client office in France, and I need to connect to a server they have in the USA. Usually, I do this with a VPN client, which should work anywhere.

Anyway, it's telling me "the default gateway on the local system cannot be reached", and sure enough, if I ping it, it's unreachable.

If that's so, how come I can get onto the internet at all?

Is this something 'general' that can be fixed, or will I need to talk to the IT bods here?

I have an IP in the same range as the gateway. I do not have static IP, DNS or WINS and I've released and renewed my IP.

TIA

PJ

I can't ping (for example) www.google.co.uk, or the IP behind that name, but I can get onto the net.

Loopback works fine.

 

[ckember]

do they do mac address filtering? If so you may get an IP address but no access to the network

 

[imadoofus]

No idea. Do I need access to the network? Surely if I can get onto the internet, then the VPN client will connect too?

I just want to pass through.

PJ

 

[recycled]

if the gateway on the local system is blocked then why don't you use DHCP to asign a new gateway.
or connect directly to the usa computer using the ip numbers, if you know them.

 

[imadoofus]

Because I have no idea what that means

I think I'll try to find another machine that's already switched on (because I don't know anyone's passwords), and use that...

PJ

 

[recycled]

sorry mate Dynamic host configuation protocol.
used to assign new gateways, subnets and IP addresses

 

[imadoofus]

I know what DHCP means, I just have no idea what you suggested I should do with it.

PJ

 

[Ratz]

If you do an ipconfig/all what do you get? Also have you tried nslookup to see if you can talk to the DNS servers.

In a DOS window type ipconfig/all > file.txt and then copy contents of file.txr into your response.

Also do you have any idea which domain you are on? eg. yahoo.com.

 

[imadoofus]

Ipconfig returns everything I'd expect. However, I've just done nslookup, and it tells me it "can't find the server for [default gateway ip]: non-existent domain".

It then says the default server is on an old corporate site that I know I don't have credentials to reach.

It seems their local IT support people haven't cut the site loose from the old corporate parent as they claimed to have done. I'm sunk.

Oh well. I'm in for a quiet afternoon then...

Thanks all for your time.

PJ

 

[Ratz]

Is there no chance they can give you local DNS server addresses? Seems a bit dodgy.

Otherwise no worries, hope you get sorted soon.

 

[imadoofus]

There is no local DNS server. It's very convoluted, but they are on a WAN which belongs to the corporation they were bought out of last year.

I know from experience in the US and the UK that getting them off this LAN is a political and beaurocratic pain in the derriere.

It ain't going to get sorted today, and I'm off to Italy in the morning, so I'll just do some shouting and they will get it sorted in their own sweet time.

PJ