Xp Media Center 2005 &VPN

Does anyone know if Media Center 2005 actually supports VPN clients? I had my Dad try to set up a VPN connection on his Media center machine and when he gets to the "Enter Company Name" it is grayed out and prefilled with "SBC". All updates are installed. He has a HP machine using SBC yahoo dsl with the install disk (boo!).

 

First thing is, you do not need the SBC software running on the machine. Second, dependant on the modem, PPPoE is done by the modem, unless you have an older Speedstream 5360 bridge like I do, then PPPoE is done by the Router.

As for VPN, any OS will do VPN, but you would need a VPN solution running on the other end to allow you to connect to it.

 

There is an end solution. I have a server set up to accept VPN connections. The problem is with his machine not allowing him to create a VPN connection through the connection Wizard. When you get to the "Enter your company name" field it is grayed out at has SBC in it.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/expert/vpns.mspx Due to you have a PPPoE connection running on the other PC, this could be the problem:

If you have an active Winsock Proxy client, you cannot create a VPN connection. A Winsock Proxy client immediately redirects data to a configured proxy server before the data can be processed in the fashion required by a VPN connection. To establish a VPN connection, you should disable the Winsock Proxy client.

And since a PPPoE connection acts like a Proxy client, that would be why you are getting the problem. Can you set up the PPPoE connection on the modem, instead of the PC?

 

I follow you now brownizs and thanks! It took me a minute but i got there. Yes His internet connection (PPOE) is via the machine itself (He does not have a router). Ive never worked behind just a modem or the SBC software. Thanks again for the help.

 

Find out what modem, if it is in Bridged mode (4100b, 5100/5200, or 2Wire), you should be able to get it out of that mode and place in regular mode to allow PPPoE to be done by the modem, not computer.

A router can be had for less then $50.00 these days for a wired one, which is better then being without.

 

Thanks for the help brownizs. The modem is a speedstream 5160 (non-configurable i have the same) i believe. It will be a while before i can actually remove the SBC install as my dad and I are in different states and it is not critical for him to have VPN capabilities. It was just to help me with testing and for some strange reason he seems to really like the "SBC yahoo" installed package. But i think your right about the problem being with the SBC Yahoo install as it acts like it is connecting to a proxy server. Thanks again it helped alot and i did find out that MCE 2005 is actually XP Pro.