A mystery of remote access

0

I'm experiencing something that I cannot explain. I probably do not have enough information to lead to definite answer, but I'll settle for any plausible explanation.

I have my work laptop that is plugged into the corporate network. It has teamviewer installed, RDP enabled, and the corporate network has a vpn access configured.

When I connect to the VPN (with standard Windows facilities) from outside of the corporate network I can neither ping nor RDP to my laptop.

I open a command window with constant ping running in there and I only see timeouts.

ping mylaptopname.mydomain -t

Now, I can see my laptiop in the teamviewer list as online. I connect to the laptop with the teamviewer and the instant teamviewer is connected the ping turns live. I do not even need to log in (that is unlock the screen).

Now I disconnect the teamviewer and connect with RDP with no problem.

I need to repeat this dance every time I need to connect to RDP after several hours (minutes? not sure) of inactivity.

I'd like to know how this can be explained, and what I can do to fix this, if I have absolutely no control over the corporate network.

Demo: http://screencast.com/t/RfWxvnzs3t7

Andrew Savinykh

Posted 2016-03-22T02:20:21.847

Reputation: 1 521

Please add some description. Is your corporate network a private network (RFC 1918 type addresses behind a NAT). I ask because I know someone who had problems like that because his home network was number 192.168.1.xxx, and the place he was VPNing to was the same numbering system, so his computer did not know whether to send 192.168.1.xxx packets through the VPN or on the local network. His fix was to set his local network ( at the router )to use 192.168.5.xxx – infixed – 2016-03-22T02:29:40.517

@infixed my home network is 192.168.. and the corp is 172...* – Andrew Savinykh – 2016-03-22T02:30:59.920

When you are at work, can you dump your IP address (ipconfig /all) and then from home, try to ping the IP address (ping IP -t)? My guess is that there might be a name resolution problem. And also try to RDP with the IP address? – cdavid – 2016-03-22T05:04:18.073

@cdavid, it is not name resolution problem. I can reproduce it either with ip or with the name. The ip of my laptop in the corp network has not change for the last couple of years. – Andrew Savinykh – 2016-03-22T09:05:39.503

Answers

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To me, it sounds like your corporate firewall is operating as it should. It is simply preventing external access to the network.

While I am not a network specialist, I have done a lot of research, in the last month, into a similar problem I am having. (ie: trying to access my home server from the internet)

The reason TeamViewer works, is because your laptop (plugged into the corporate network, and your computer (at home) connect to a TeamViewer server and negotiate the connection. Up until that connection is made, your laptop is un-discoverable on the internet.

TeamViewer has an option to keep the connection open, but I think doing so would jeopardize your corporate security.

69_Goat

Posted 2016-03-22T02:20:21.847

Reputation: 1

VPN is set up to grant access not to prevent it. Sorry, this answer does not make sense. – Andrew Savinykh – 2016-04-02T09:14:11.217

Asked: 2016-03-22T02:20:21.847

Viewed: 129 times

Active: 2016-04-02T05:08:09.657