In my college apartment, I setup a VPN service on a machine that is always on through Windows XP's Network Connection wizard. I followed the instructions but still cannot connect to it. It's possible that the firewall on the server machine is blocking the request, but I doubt this.

Is it possible to connect to a VPN within the network that the VPN is servicing, or do I always have to connect to the VPN in an outside network?

You always have to connect from outside. VPN routing won't work correctly from inside the network that the VPN is connecting to.

Damn it, how am I supposed to troubleshoot it then?

From your nearest hotspot.

Gee thanks, I didn't think of that... they're all WEP encrypted, I know I could crack it with airsnort and documentation, but I don't care enough.

I'm sorry, but I don't believe any of this, there's got to be a way to recursively connect to your own VPN. If not a true VPN connection, then at least test to see if it's working properly.

There's just too many causes for the connection error, I don't know where to start.

The hotspot at a local library or even a coffee shop probably is free. The library might block some ports.

Actually if it's set up on a particular machine, then you "probably" can, but if it's part of the router, then you can't.

True, there are hot-spots near me that are free, but I'm sure you can understand the headache of walking from my apartment to the Egroll Café for the purpose of troubleshooting a VPN. Hence, tend to think that Microsoft thought the VPN service through, so people wouldn't have to do this. And yet Microsoft's website offers little in the way of documentation, and I can't call them because I don't have a legitimate copy of XP.

The VPN is setup on a particular machine. But, I have the Linksys WCG200 cable gateway, and I read on a forum that there were issues with VPN connections concerning this particular router, however that post was made nearly three years ago.

I'm wondering... I'll bet if you set up a cheap wireless router on your lan as an access point and it had a different subnet than your network, and your VPN connection you can probably troubleshoot it that way. You would have to forward the ports on that router. One of my routers can function this way.

No legit copy of XP = I will no longer help you. Good luck.

No legit copy of XP = I will no longer help you. Good luck.

Thanks boyscout.