I have a home LAN, a Win2000Svr with 2 NICs. NIC-1 to the linksys router, NIC-2 to the linksys 5 port switch. The switch has a few clients W2000/XP pro, Win2000Svr as a DHCP server and a Win2000Server as an IIS web server. I want to be able to VPN in to my Win2000Svr that contains the 2 NICs, when I am out of town. Is this possible? I have configured the VPN on the server and configured a new client connection on a Win2000Pro client, allowed a domain user dial in access. When i run the connection it does not connect me to the VPN server. Do I have to open any ports on the router? Is this VPN setup possible? does the VPN request from the client leave through the router and then come back in to the same router to the VPN server? can a private LAN client computer VPN into a VPN server in the same private LAN? does this VPN request leave the private LAN going to the public WAN (internet) and then come back into the private LAN? (I figure if this internal computer can VPN to the server then so would a computer I used when I am out of town.)

Is the machine you're using for testing already connected to the same network as the machine you want to access via VPN? If so, that may be why you're not able to connect. Life's more painless for the brainless.

the client computer is connected to the LAN switch. The VPN server is also connected to the switch. the VPN server has 2 NICs, one to the router and the other to the switch.