I'm trying to pick up on this old thread: http://www.computing.net/networking... I realize this is an old thread, but it describes my problem exactly. I'd like to pick up where it left off. I've been trying to solve this issue at another site if you'd like to take a look at that thread: http://chicagotech.net/netforums/vi... To answer heropsycho2177's questions in the original thread: 1. Can you ping the file server by host name as well as ip address? No, only IP. 2. What are you using for name resolution - DNS or NetBios broadcasting? WINS? I'm not sure. 3. Can you access the shares using an IP address instead of a hostname? No, can't access shares via IP or hostname. 4. When you say you can't browse the shares, can you see the computers by name? Actually yes! But when I click on them to browse them I get an error. Typically something like "The network path was not found". Let me just be clear, I'm trying to setup a VPN from my Windows Mobile 5 phone to my home network. I've opened up the VPN ports in my router and setup the VPN in Win XP. I can connect to the VPN and I can see the incoming connection in "Network Connections" under the Incoming section. I'm logging in as "Administrator". I've enable the Administrator user and set the same password on all my XP machines. They all can see each other on the local LAN. I run all my XP machines logged in as Administrator and I have done so for years. Once I establish the VPN my phone's connection ("RAS VPN Line 0" the phone calls it) is given a local IP address (192.168.0.116). From the phone I can ping the IP address of all of the other XP machines on the local LAN. From any computer on the local LAN I can ping the phone. But like mentioned above, the subnet mask of the VPN connection is set to 255.255.255.255 while my home LAN's subnet mask it 255.255.255.0. Unfortunately that is beyond my level of network understanding. Using a program called PocketLAN I can have it search for computers on the network. It finds them ALL by host name and even indicates the correct workgroup name. But when I try to browse them I get the error. I even found reference to the error on PocketLAN's site: http://www.z2software.com/FAQ-PPL.htm FAQ says: "I get "Network path can not found" error when I try to browse the network resource with PocketLAN. How to fix it?" You would need to change the network card connect to "Work" instead of "Internet". On z2 PocketLAN, click "IP Config"->Settings->Network Adapters and change "My network card connects to" to "Work". Disconnect and reconnect your network. I tried this but it was already set to Work. I've tried to browse using an IP address \\192.168.0.101\C (for example), but it doesn't work, same error. I'm going crazy I can't figure this out. I'm so close. Here's some strange things that I've noticed that just MIGHT give somebody a clue. When I said I can ping every computer on the LAN from the phone, that is not exactly true. I can not ping the IP address of the VPN host (192.168.0.102). Background: In the "Incoming TCP/IP Properties" for the VPN host I checked "Allow callers to access my local area network" and I specified TCP/IP addresses FROM: 192.168.0.115 TO: 192.168.0.116 And I have "Allow calling computer to specify its own IP address" unchecked. So, the VPN host gets assigned the .115 and the VPN client get .116. I can ping both the .115 and the .116 from the phone (VPN Client) but can not ping the VPN host machine itself, 192.168.0.102. Maybe that is ok? I can ping .115 and .116 from the VPN host (.102), so it works going back from the VPN host to the phone, but not from the phone to the VPN host. PocketLan can produce reports of all kinds. Maybe I'll post some here... I'm willing to try anything at this point... please help if you can. If you need me to start at square one I will. Thanks!

Lets start over. A VPN should act as a common wire. It should be as if you can connect like a lan computer. I am kind of thinking that the issue is how the vpn interacts with the local lan. Can you set up you vpn on a remote computer and try that? Let's try to single out the network or the pocket stuff first. While I am not exactly following your install, are you using XP pro as the vpn service? notes. http://www.chicagotech.net/vpnsetup... On XP use the IP address's if possible. It might take up to 20 minutes to resolve names. We have that issue on legacy software that looks for names. Unless you have a wins server that is, that would fix that issue. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.