[rgainey201]

I have recently set up a site-to-site VPN connection using IPsec protocol. I have a windows 7 workstation that can communicate with a server at my main office but I cannot search for the same server in the new Windows 8 environment.
Hardware
Main Office: Netgear FVS318g / LAN 10.199.189.25 - 10.199.189.254 / Higher Gear server is 10.199.189.21:3050
Remote Office: Netgear FVS318n / LAN 10.179.169.1 - 10.179.189.254

The connection has been established and I am able to ping any LAN IP on either side in the command prompt. When setting up the windows 7 machine I searched within the start menu IP 10.199.189.21 which is the server at the main office, I found the networked folder which has a .exe for the server applet. However this is not working for windows 8. I have also tried to set inbound and outbound firewall rules without any success.

I would appreciate any in insight on this issue, it is driving me insane. I know windows 8 made a lot of changes, but didn't think the file explorer or network connections were a part of the changes.

[timallen]

So you can connect on windows 8 but cannot search for the server?

Have you turned on network sharing on that machine?

Here's a tutorial: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-PH/windows-8/turn-sharing-on-or-off

[rgainey201]

Yes, This is a new network that I set up in the remote office. Everything is shared, also tried a homegroup and workgroup.
the only way i can find the server is pinging the LAN from the windows 8 machine, so I know the VPN is working correctly. Very puzzling to me, I've set up many networks and windows 7 machines with no problem. In fact I have a windows 7 machine up and running on the server at the this remote office.

[timallen]

So you did enabled "Network discovery" on the windows 8 machine? I encountered this problem once and turning on network discovery on windows 8 fix it because that setting is disabled by default on win8.

If it is already enabled then I can't think of any other issues that could cause this.