VPN Suddenly Stopped Working
- From: hedera <hedera@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:57:00 -0700
I support a small nonprofit with a small network. They have an office
computer running Win XP (patch level unknown), which uses Windows Firewall;
this machine supports the Access database that contains business and
membership records.
The officers use a VPN to connect to the office computer, since they keep
local copies of the database which they update and sync. They don't use VPN
clients; they just configure network connections on their laptops, following
instructions which I wrote. Recently the VPN stopped working for no visible
reason; I'm hoping someone can suggest something to try.
The VPN is supported by a LinkSys BEFSX41 ver2 router, 4 Ethernet ports.
The firewall is enabled; ports 1723, 47, and 1701 are forwarded to the office
computer at its static IP 192.168.23.101., which is configured on the LAN
connection. IPSec passthrough is enabled. Other items plugged into the
LinkSys are a LinkSys VoIP router and a NetGear 8 port Ethernet switch. The
office computer is plugged into the NetGear switch, as are Ethernet cables
for use by wandering volunteers' laptops.
The internal router IP is 192.168.23.1, and it also serves DHCP for 50
addresses starting at .150. The subnet mask is 255.255.255.0. The Internet
connection is PPoE and the IP is not static, so we use DynDNS, which the
router supports, to provide a stable host name for the VPN connection.
The router seems to be working; full Internet access is available. But
attempts to open the VPN get 1 of 2 errors depending on the source: my Vista
laptop gets RRAS error 800; my XP desktop gets RRAS error 678. Attempts to
telnet to port 1732 at the DynDNS hostname (or its fronted IP, I've tried
both) produce a time-out, as did DynDNS's Open Port tool.
I'm almost positive, having read the online materials about VPNs, that the
router setup is correct; but we rebuilt the configuration Saturday, and I'm
wondering if there was some other configuration that I didn't have documented.
I tried (shame on me!) turning off the Windows firewall on the office
computer briefly, and I still couldn't connect to the VPN; but I'm not sure
if I should have expected to, because I was connected by Ethernet to the
local LAN, same network as the office server. I didn't have another network
with Internet access available to try from.
So: is the Windows firewall configuration a possible culprit? Or was my
failure to connect because I wasn't on the "outside" of the router? If the
firewall isn't a possible culprit, what other configurations might be the
problem? Any suggestions most gratefully accepted. We tried rebooting
everything again, and we tried taking the NetGear switch and the VoIP router
out of the connection and plugging the office computer directly into the
LinkSys - didn't help, still no response on the port.
--
hedera
Nature bats last.
.
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