Published on 2013-06-30
\nPrerequisites for this article
\nTo read this article you should understand the following concepts:
\n– VPN
\n– PPTP
\n– routing
\n– network and netmask
\n– DNS server IP
\n– configuring PPTP VPN on Windows 7\/8<\/p>\n
The Problem<\/strong> Once we have configured our VPN connection we can see that there are only 2 options to configure IP networks going to VPN tunnel:<\/p>\n 1) Use VPN as a default gateway (all packets go to VPN) What if we want to route more than one specific networks to VPN and everything else to our default internet gateway?<\/p>\n A special software exists to perform this kind of tasks, that is called ‘Connection Manager’ (CM). But this article is not about 3rd party CMs.<\/p>\n All we want is configure custom routes, going to VPN, with native Windows 7\/8 tools, which will be automatically enabled once you connect to remote site (and they will be automatically removed, once you bring the VPN connection down, this is a default Windows behavior).<\/p>\n Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n I assume you already have a configured PPTP connection. In my example VPN connection name is ‘FarPost VPN’. Remember it, I will use it in many places. Replace it with the name of your VPN connection.<\/p>\n Suppose we wish to route only the following networks to the VPN: Also we want to use DNS servers from the VPN (their addresses should be in one of the above routable networks). Our DNS servers will be 192.168.100.2 and 172.16.1.2.<\/p>\n Step-by-Step: – Create a directory for your scripts. I will name it ‘FarpostVPN’ (run this command in cmd.exe):<\/p>\n mkdir C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Network\\Connections\\Cm\\FarpostVPN Select all<\/p>\n Open in new window<\/p>\n – Create a custom ‘route add’ script (also run from cmd.exe):<\/p>\n notepad routes.netsh<\/p>\n Select all<\/p>\n Open in new window interface ipv4 Select all<\/p>\n Open in new window – Now connect to your VPN (this is a trick to locate correct windows Event), if you are not already connected<\/p>\n – Run Windows event viewer (from cmd.exe run):<\/p>\n eventvwr.exe<\/p>\n Select all<\/p>\n Open in new window – Right click on this event and select ‘Attach Task To this Event’ – Press Next (you will be on ‘When The Event is Logged’ dialog) Select all<\/p>\n Open in new window exec routes.netsh<\/p>\n Select all<\/p>\n Open in new window C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Network\\Connections\\Cm\\FarpostVPN\\<\/p>\n Select all<\/p>\n Open in new window – on Task properties dialog change the following: – if you missed your task properties, in cmd.exe you can run:<\/p>\n taskschd.msc<\/p>\n Select all<\/p>\n Open in new window – close ‘cmd.exe’<\/p>\n – now configure custom DNS servers on your VPN connection – now every time you connect to your VPN server, routes should be added automatically<\/p>\n Regards, https:\/\/www.experts-exchange.com\/articles\/11931\/Automatic-VPN-routes-configuration-for-PPTP-in-Windows-7-8.html <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nSuppose we have a PC with Windows 8 (or Windows 7) and we have administrator privileges on it. Now we decided to connect to our workplace with PPTP (server is already configured on remote site and it’s configuration is not covered by this article).<\/p>\n
\n2) Use VPN with only one route to the network, based on peer’s PPTP internal IP address (say if we connected to remote peer with 192.168.15.1 VPN address, we route all 192.168.15.0\/24 network there).<\/p>\n
\n172.16.1.0\/24
\n192.168.100.0\/24<\/p>\n
\n– Run ‘cmd.exe’ as Administrator.
\n Press Windows-F, find Files -> ‘cmd.exe’, right click and select ‘Run as Administrator’<\/p>\n
\ncd C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Network\\Connections\\Cm\\FarpostVPN<\/p>\n
\nand here is content of our ‘routes.netsh’ (don’t forget to replace ‘FarPost VPN’ with your real connection name):<\/p>\n
\nadd route prefix=172.16.1.0\/24 interface=”FarPost VPN” store=active
\nadd route prefix=192.168.100.0\/24 interface=”FarPost VPN” store=active
\nexit<\/p>\n
\nsave this script to C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Network\\Connections\\Cm\\FarpostVPN<\/p>\n
\nand locate the latest ‘Informational’ event here: Windows Logs -> Applications and Services Logs -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Network Profile -> Operational (log name) -> 10000 (event ID).
\nIn my case the event looks like:
\nNetwork Connected
\n Name: FarPost VPN
\n Desc: FarPost VPN
\n Type: Unmanaged
\n State: Connected
\n Category: Public<\/p>\n
\nNow you know what to do, no?
\nAssign any name and add meaningful description (say “add routes to FarPost VPN”)<\/p>\n
\n– Press Next again
\nSelect ‘Start a program’ and press ‘Next’
\n– on ‘Start a program’ dialog enter:
\nProgram\/script:
\nnetsh.exe<\/p>\n
\nAdd arguments: <\/p>\n
\nStart in:<\/p>\n
\npress Next
\n– on ‘Finish’ dialog check the ‘Open the properties dialog when I click Finish’
\npress Finish<\/p>\n
\nGeneral tab:
\n– check ‘Run with highest privileges’
\n– configure for: (select Windows 8 or Vista)
\nConditions tab:
\n– uncheck ‘Start the task only if computer runs on AC power’
\n– Start only if the following network connection is available: select your VPN connection
\npress OK, your task is ready<\/p>\n
\nand locate your task here:
\nTask Scheduler Library -> Event Viewer Tasks
\nhere you can also ‘Enable All Tasks History’ and see when and what codes your task executed in ‘History’ tab<\/p>\n
\nright click on your VPN connection
\nselect ‘Properties’
\n‘Networking’ tab -> select ‘Internet Protocol Version 4’ -> Properties
\nselect ‘Use the following DNS server addresses’:
\nenter Preferred DNS and Alternative server IP (your internal VPN server address, in my example it is 192.168.100.2 and 172.16.1.2)
\npress ‘OK’ and you are done<\/p>\n
\nArtyom A. Konovalenko<\/p>\n