Hi everyone,

I'm trying to get my GF's Windows XP Pro machine work nicely on my LAN and with her VPN dialer simultaneously. We've just moved in together and I've got to get this figured out so she can work (she works out of the house).

For work, she is required to use an AT&T VPN "dialer" that makes a VPN tunnel over an existing internet connection. I can make that work just fine. She also needs to be able to use the LAN resources -- file sharing, printers, etc. That also works fine. They don't work at the same time, however.

She also needs to be able to access the internet without going through the VPN, to download email, etc.

All of these things should work simultaneously, but I can't make it work reliably.

The VPN dialer requires something called "Net Firewall" to be bound to the network adapter. This conflicts with filesharing on the lan.

I figured I could solve the problem by installing a second NIC. In fact, it worked just fine for a little while, but now it isn't working. When I first installed the second NIC, it worked like a charm.

When the VPN is connected, I can't access anything on the LAN. I can't even ping machines on the LAN. Its as if the second network connection doesn't even exist.

I made sure that Windows File Sharing and Client for Microsoft Windows Networks are both unchecked on one connection, while they are checked but Network Firewall is unchecked on the other one.

Why can't I make this work? What an abortion. I could have had this running on 50 unix/linux computers buy now...

Please help.

Thanks in advance,

Jim