I’m setting up an XP VPN using a DSL Static IP through a Qwest Actiontek GT701-WG Modem.
First I had to set the Actiontek router to allow Port Forwarding for two ports.
Actiontek access: Browser set to http://192.168.0.1 (Actiontek default, Linksys default is 192.168.1.1)
Select Setup/Configuration
Select Advanced Setup
Select Port Forwarding
IP Port Range 1723 to 1723 — TCP — 192.168.0.3 (my computers ip found through ipconfig)
IP Port Range to — GRE — 192.168.0.3 (GRE is selected from the drop down list
Select Save and Restart
Next I had to open the Actiontek built in Firewall. I then enabled the XP Firewall, which continued to block outside contacts but let the VPN connection in. The non-Qwest firmware version of the modem has a feature to allow VPN connections with the firewall but the Qwest version does not.
I updated the firmware on the Qwest Actiontek modem. Turns out it needs a special firmware version. It took me quite a while to discover it at this address:
http://actiontecstore.com/qwest/gt701wg_upgrade-5.5e.html
I used a variety of tools. XP has a VPN helper tool (Pptpsvr.exe) that can be downloaded with other tools to determine if the server is set up correctly (XP Pro has a VPN server included, XP Home does not have it. The XP VPN will only accept one connection at a time). Once started Pptpsvr.exe will wait for an attempted connection, so I used a Win98 VPN client on a separate ISP to attempt a connection and that helped identify a problem I can’t remember right now…oh yes, that strange -GRE setting in port forwarding needed to be allowed.
I used http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/xp_vpn_server.htm to get a good idea of how to set up the VPN on XP.
I used https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 Shields Up! to test the security of the XP VPN once it was set up.
That site also has http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm SpinRite which is proported to be the best hard drive test and repair program around. I’ve used it before…it can take many hours to test a hard drive, other than that I don’t know how good it is.
Another note: The clients VPN adapter TCP/IP settings need to *not* use “default gateway on remote system” or else the clients surfing will suffer (*-*).