I cannot ping my work computer through a Microsoft ISA VPN?

Question

My company's IT staff has given up. I am running a laptop at home, which is my company's. It is connected directly to my router via cat5 cable. I have connected and authenticated myself successfully, but after the connection, I cannot ping the computer I want.

My IT person tells me it might be my router security setting, but he can't come to every home to see what's going on. I don't want to contact verizon - they have an automated system that discourages people from seeking help. Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.10.16.52

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.10.16.52

I can ping computers starting with 10.*, but not those on my corporate network starting with 192.168.*. Previously, I had gotten this to work by re-mapping my home network to have addresses in the 192.168.8.* range, and this appeared to work, but I cannot seem to make that happen this time.

I have reconfigured my own router IP distribution range, but that did not solve the problem. I set my router security settings to minimum (temporarily only), but that didn't help either.

What can I do to further diagnose this problem?

Answer 1

Ping is an ICMP protocol. Most Firewall settings do not allow ping. Also your IP Address and Default Gateway are the same address. The subnet mask is also wrong. If you are logged onto your companies LAN, the Remote Access Server should direct you to a DHCP Server or assign an IP address to your PC. You should not retain Verizon's IP address. If you do your LAN is missconfigured. Can you ping other resources on your LAN? If not, then Ping is dissabled.

If your administrators have not turned off the support of Incoming Echo Request on the LAN, then you should check the Firewall settings on your work computer. Right Click your Network Connection Icon > Properties >  Advanced > firewall Settings > Advanced > Settings > ICMP check to see that Allow Incoming Echo Requests is checked.

You could also try Tracert to see if there is a path to your PC. Sometimes the signal will be stopped by a router in the path and there is not a problem with your PC. If you get a response from Ping that says something like "Negotiating Security Settings" then the problem could be IPSec security settings in use on the LAN.

I hope this helps

Cheers