Re: Use Cisco VPN Client without Trashing WINDOWS/XP Wireless Network?

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I once had wireless home network troubles with my earlier version of Cisco VPN 3000 Client (v4.05). Perhaps this applies to your case too.

Took me months to figure out that Cisco v4.05 does not do a good job of uninstalling itself and even leaves behind active components of a ZoneLab firewall. The firewall components shutdown file sharing on my home network.

Maybe things got better with your version, but before you continue I think it's worth a look around to see if some Cisco/Zonelab files are still hanging around.

Links below.

Lance
*****

Cisco - How to Manually Uninstall the Cisco VPN Client 3.5 and Later for
Windows 2000
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/471/vpn3K_uninstall.html#related

Uninstall ZoneAlarm
http://nh2.nohold.net/noHoldCust25/Prod_1/Articles55646/ManualUninstall.html
hhttp://nh2.nohold.net/noHoldCust25/Prod_1/Articles55646/CompleteUninstallNonNT.html

There is a discussion of the problem here:

Cisco VPN and XP sP2 Firewall
http://forum.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/NetProf?page=netprof&CommCmd=MB%3Fcmd%3Dpass_through%26location%3Doutline%40%5E1%40%40.1dd62b2d/0#selected_message

pwrichcreek said the following on 1/12/2006 12:02:
I have a home network set up to share a high-speed internet connection, a printer, and some files between a desktop computer and a notebook computer.

Day before yesterday everything was working fine.

Yesterday I installed the CISCO VPN CLIENT software v4.6, connected to a remote computer, tried unsuccessfully to access the remote compute with UltraVNC, disconnected, and noticed that printer sharing was not working and everything the notebook did with IE was running very slowly.

Today, after spending several hours troubleshooting, including un-installing CISCO VPN CLIENT, the local network is working fine again.

I'd still like to use the VPN software, but before installing it again I'd like to be a bit betterprepared to get-back-where-I-came-from in the likely event that I wind up with a disabled home network. And a bit better prepared to collect information about the network at various points in the process. I've looked through numerous threads here and elsewhere, but I don't find a simple, cookbook solution for how to make the VPN work in my environment, so..

Here is my plan:

1- Take System Restore checkpoint
2- Run network tools (see QUESTIONS below)
3- Install and activate VPN software  (probably re-boot)
4- Run network tools again
5- Connect with VPN software
6- Run network tools again
7- PROBABLY: Restore System
8- Analyze results and Try again

MY QUESTIONS:

1- Is my plan reasonable? Should System Restore get me back to where I was?

2- I've download the Microsoft XP SP2 Support Tools. For "Run network tools" (above) what tools would be most useful to run to get a picture of the status and configuration of my network? I assume browstat. Others? I would run ipconfig and try pinging also. Anything else I can do to collect this information?

3- CISCO published an article about using the VPN Client software in an XP wireless network environment. I've browsed the article, but find myself stopping every other sentence and pondering some network acronym or term -- I'm network challenged. I gather that the position they are taking is "Hey, if you're having trouble using VPN client in WIN/XP, it must be a WIN/XP problem". I don't spot a lot of "Here are steps you can take in configuring VPN to avoid problems". If someone is familiar enough with VPN and/or this particualr document, or has the time to peruse it, I'd appreciate any advice that can be gleaned from it. 

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps2308/products_tech_note09186a0080194b4a.shtml#intro

MY CONFIGURATION:

MOTOROLA SB4100 CABLE MODEM -> DLINK VOIP T/A -> LINKSYS WRT54G ~~ ethernet cable ~~ DELL DESKTOP WIN/XP SP2
WIRELESS ROUTER ~~ wireless ~~ HP NOTEBOOK WIN/XP SP2

The shared printer is usb-connected to the DESKTOP.

TIA for any help,

Phil

.

Relevant Pages

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