A fix for Error 720: A Connection to the remote computer could not be established when trying to connect to a Windows 7 VPN
by Paul Kiddie • June 9, 2011 • windows 7 • 29 Comments
I was recently re-setting up my Windows 7 VPN server and forgot an essential step that led me to get ‘Error 720: A Connection to the remote computer could not be established’ when trying to connect to it with Windows-based clients. Turns out you might need to assign an IP address range to the VPN server, by doing the following:
1. Go into Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings
2. Right click on Incoming Connection
3. Click on the Networking tab and double click on the ‘Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)’ checkbox
4. Click the ‘Specify IP addresses’ and type an IP range that is in line with your current router setup (e.g. if your LAN is on a 192.168.11.x network, then you might want to set it as follows):
You should now find, like me, that the VPN works once more! I’ll post up a tutorial on how I got it working and accessible to the public Internet soon.
Just wanted to note, this fixed my problem. So thanks for this!
Tanks for sharing. That fixs my 720 problem.
I think I love you… After 5 hours of searching, this solved my error 720: A connection to the remote computer could not be established. You might need to change the network settings for this connection. Thank you
Thank you, I have been searching the web for hours before I came across your solution, and it solved my problem.
Thank you once again…
THANK YOU
I was looking forever!!
cant find the ‘incoming connection’
I don’t normally reply to guides like this, but this error had been bugging me for a LONG time. I have a Windows Server 2003 computer set up, and VPN would work sometimes, and when it didn’t it was error 720. This guide fixed the problem and it connected on the first try. Thanks!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. After 2 days of bashing away at setting up VPN you solved the 720 error.
Fixed my problem, thanks!
Ditto to what Charlie said I was ready to bash my head against the wall trying to fix this error.
My savior!! I was looking for that manipulation for about 2 days, fortunately you were there!
Thanks a lot man!
Thank u so much, i reach all google web and thanks to u i can fix my problem =)) <3
True hero! Could you please explain WHY does this fix this issue?
I recently started having this issue (seemingly out of no-where); just thought I’d post my fix. I have SuperAntiSpyware on my computer (I’m not advertising for them, just don’t want anyone to go through all the long hours I went through), there’s a tool in the “Repairs” section of SAS called “Repair broken Network Connection (Winsock LSP Chain)”. As the program states, please use with caution. Once I ran that, I had to restart as it did something in the registry. Once it came back up, BAM, fixed; after about a month of trying to fix it… BTW, it says it’s only for Window Xp (the tool), but I used it on my Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, no issues. Hope this helps
Thanks a lot, this fixed my problem.
Thank you so much, after searching the wep for RAS-protocols and god knows what it was this simple!
I did not think this would matter but I said why not, it won’t hurt anything… so much for thinking windows would just do it.
Thank you, I followed the above steps but when it got to the typing the IP address am still clueless on how to get the IP address. Please where do I get the IP address to put there? I await a reply. Anyone please!
Thanks a lot bro.
Helped to solve my 720 
Good job, keep going!
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@bheems. you need to know your routers dhcp scope. typically on a home router it is either 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254 or 192.168.0.1-.254 you can find out which your uses by going to a command prompt and typing in ipconfig . It will give you your ip address and you can look at it for a reference. Whatever your ip address is, use that same scheme when typing into the ip range and just go up a few numbers. For instance if your ipconfig says your ip is 192.168.1.9 then type in 192.168.1.15 in the From and in the To type in 192.168.1.20 . That will give you 6 addresses. Of course those ip’s are examples only so if your ip scheme is different those I provided will not work . Hopefully you get the idea though.
@Paul. You da man. Thanks for this bit of info. No walkthroughs I’ve found ever mention just supplying a range but after doing so it works beautifully. Now I can connect from my work to my home and not get blocked by our corporate filter policies!
Thanks a lot! =)
18 months later after the article was originally posted, and still incredibly helpful! Solved my 720 problem in seconds, no extensive Googling or hairpulling required — thank you!!
Still insanely useful! Completely forgot about this step!
Thanks for all the messages – glad to hear it’s still useful!
2 years on and this blog page is still helping people out
This solves the problem. Most of the servers works with the “normal” VPN configuration, but some servers were killing me with the 720 issue. And it seems that this problem is increasing, even with Windows 8 on clean installs !
Last week I had this problem with a brand new Windows 7 machine. Today with a brand new Windows 8 machine.
This blog was THE solution, it works !!!! I don’t want to know why, this solution is simple and working.
Thanks a million !
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Thank you so much. I had been fighting with the VPN server on windows 7 for days. I use a VPN for my iphone when I’m on public WIFI o keep my data safe and when I replaced my old windows XP system that i use for a server with a Windows 7 I couldn’t get it to work right. This was the trick wish some other help sites would show this.