SBS 2003 Missed Shared Folder

The situation:

Office 1 (192.168.4.X)
1. Windows Small Business Server 2003 (SP2) (SBS 2003)
1. Router Linksys VPN RV042 (last firmware)
6. Desktops Windows XP Pro SP2

Office 2 (192.168.5.X)
1. Router Linksys VPN RV042 (last firmware)
6. Desktops Windows XP Pro SP2

Both offices VPN connected over linksys routers.
Routers have Netbios enabled and the 12 desktops have NETBIOS/TCPIP enabled
The windows XP firewall is enabled in all Desktops but in all cases I have enabled file and print sharing and remote desktop and remote assistance.
WINS is running on SBS 2003
DNS server is running on SBS 2003
Messenger service is running on all desktops and on SBS 2003
I can ping all machines from server and I can ping each computer from each other.

The problem:

All desktops can reach the server and they can reach each other.
I can see all the computers in My Network places from all the computers and also I can see all the Shared Folders.

From SBS 2003 I can see all the computers from both offices but I have trouble with shared folders.

I can reach all shared folders from the Office 1 (the same LAN that the SBS 2003 is installed on) but I see the Shared Folders of ONE computer from Office 2 and I can not see the other 5 shared folders from the others 5 desktops.

I can send "net send" messages to the same computers and I cannot send it to the same computers that I can’t reach the shared folders.

I tried some solutions from many forums (registry, security policies, Authentication) but I couldn’t find a solution to my problem. Ok I can reinstall 5 desktops, but I don’t like it.

All the computers are in the same Domain (I have just one domain)

 

charlywin,

Welcome to WindowsBBS

You are looking to put a lot of traffic across your VPN link. If you are using ADSL, that will put a lot of strain on the connection. With VPN between two ADSL sites the limit is always the ADSL upload speed. So connect from site A to B and the limit will be the upload speed at the site A connection. From B to A the limit is the upload speed at the B connection. This can commonly be less than 0.5 Mb/s.

Coupled to that, MS NetBIOS and files sharing are very inefficient. They are designed to work over networks where bandwidth is not an issue. Worse still if you start to map drives across the VPN each mapping will hog precious bandwidth as your systems maintain those mappings.

Therefore, firstly I would recommend not relying on NetBIOS for name resolution over the VPN link. Statically assign the IP address of the Office 2 computers and use DNS for name resolution. For this to work, you will need to add a host A record for each Office 2 computer, to your domain DNS forward lookup zone.

Also I would recommend you check your router settings, to ensure that NetBIOS is only enabled over the VPN - you do not want to enable NetBIOS to an open external connection on your router.

Second limit the number of folder connections. In particular avoid setting up mapped drives that connect over the VPN link.

Consider using FTP for file transfer over the VPN. FTP hogs less bandwidth over a low bandwidth connection. The easiest way to manage this is probably to set up a small FTP server at each site. You can use IIS to do this on the 2003 server. At the remote site it is worth looking at getting a small NAS box as these commonly come with an FTP facility. For example, a Buffalo Linkstation.

 

Hi ReggieB

Thanks for your help, answers and suggestions.

I'll explain a little more:
I'm using the VPN to synchronize 2 folders, so the people on office 1 works over folder 1 (F1) and the people form office 2 works over folder 2 (F2). Periodically i do a synchro between F1 and F2 .
The problem is that from Office 2 (where the server is) i can reach the computer (ping, netbios, bla bla bla, i have the computer icon in my windows explorer - network places) but i can't see the FOLDER Shared (F1).
I wanted to run the synchro service in the server side, but the solution by now is to run the synchro service from the client in office 1.
You are right about the netbios concerns and off course i have the netbios enabled just over the VPN and not for the WAN, all desktops have static IP. The mapped driver is just one. And of course I'm using syncrho because the bandwidth problems that you explained to access mapped folders on line over DSL.
Nevertheless i'm going to be crazy with this little matter....
thanks again.

 

I found the problem after many days of work on it . The problem was the firewall. I was confused because all firewalls were exactly the same in all pc's. The problem was in the SBS 2003 Group Policy. I found that the NETBIOS port for Printer and file sharing was enabled just for the localnetwork, and both offices are in different networks. I'm suspecting that i rebooted the 5 computers many times and i didn't restart the only one that i could see. So the 5 five computers had the Firewal Group Policy and the other one no.
Thanks again i appreciate your help and your suggestions

 

Well done for sorting the problem, and thank you for posting back the solution.

Using a single synchronised pair of folders (one each side of the VPN) is a good way to deal with some of the limitations of VPN, so I'm glad you got it sorted.