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Trouble connecting to Office VPN from home.


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#1
Matasovsky

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I'm having trouble connecting to the office VPN from home and didn't know if someone here was available this evening when I get home to help troubleshoot?

Work gave me software from Cisco to install on my computer. I did that. I imported the VPN information they gave me, double clicked on the software and connected thru Cisco. It says it is connected, but I'm not being prompted to log onto our network, or not prompted for my username and password.

Tried to ping certain directories on the office network with no luck ("Network Path not found"). IT person here thinks I'm sending, but not receiving and that one possibility is something in the DNS?

Anyway. I'm trying to avoid having to disconnect everything and actually bring it in to get worked on. I'm not sure if I've got something on that shouldn't be? something off that shouldn't be? is my firewall interfering? Is something on Norton interferring? a setting in my DSL set-up?

Lots of possibilities and I don't know where to look. Anyone here think they'd be able to assist on this?
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#2
dsenette

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your firewall is almost deffinitely interfering (and if norton isn't interfering...that would be a first)....try disabeling your firewalls and try again...if it's not prompting you for a username/password (and it's supposed to be) then you're not making a connection to the VPN
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#3
Matasovsky

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Alright, I've turned off the Windows Firewall, I turned everything in Norton Internet Security off that wasn't already off, and disabled Auto-Protect for Norton Antivirus.

I've double clicked and started Cisco Sytems VPN Client. I've clicked "Connect" using the profile they provided me. It says I've been connected for 15 minutes now. However, I still have had no authentication (Username and Password) window pop up. I am unable to see any directories on the office network, nor am I getting a response when I try to ping.

Any suggestions on anything I might be forgetting to turn off with the above softwares mentioned? I honestly can't think of any other softwares I have that would be causing a problem. I have DSL, but I don't believe there are any security features currently provided that I am utilizing.

Appreciate any help anyone can provide.

THANKS!
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#4
dsenette

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talk to your IS folk...see if you can get them to give you the public ip of the VPN router (ask for that specifically...they SHOULD know what you're talking about...if they don't...then the rason it's not working is because they're stupid) once you get that, see if you can ping it from home...if you can't ping it from home....then you're not gonna be connecting...however..if you can...then it's something else
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#5
Matasovsky

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Alright.....I unplugged my computer and took it to work, gave it to our IT guy. He took it home and was able to get on line and log into our work VPN "with no problem". He was prompted to authenticate and provided a user name and password.

I get it back home, plug it all back in, and am unable to connect to the VPN.

We said, before he took it home, that if he could get my computer to connect from his house, then the only thing different would be my ISP. It is SBC/Yahoo - DSL. I have a DSL Modem, not a router, so to my knowledge all of my firewalls are down when I turned off Windows XP Firewall and Norton Internet Security's Firewall.

I'm only turning them off to attempt to make the connection to the office VPN. I'm not surfing when it is down.

Any suggestions or ideas on what is causing the problem?

:whistling:
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#6
bobmad

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sorry no answer, but a few questions.

1) CAN you surf without the VPN? (if no you have a connection issue)

2) CAN you surf with VPN on? (leave firewall and norton up of course).

3) Do you have an IP address to the server or a local machine (in the office) that you need to connect to?

4) If yes to 3 can you ping it?

5) Did your IT people set up local shares (network drives that are enabled on your machine)?

6) If yes to 5 can you pull up files from those? (most likely click on "my computer" then click on a drive listed under network drives.) Please try it even if it says disabled or not available.

Please note if you answered yes to number 6 you can most likely work from home as you would from work (depending on the general network setup).

Also note if your local shares are not set up, or are unreachable it is VERY often a DNS issue. Many companies use the main server as the DNS and DHCP servers. If the directories are being shared by name, your computer will not know where to go to find this name (because your Active Directory name is most likely LOCAL).

I use "net use z: \\192.168.1.100\users\bobmad " where 192.168.1.100 is my server's LOCAL IP address and z: is the drive letter I want to assign and \users\bobmad is the path on the server.

Your IT people will most likely understand what I'm saying in my example even if I went over your head. (If I did I'm sorry, but I'm trying to put a LOT of information in a small post.).
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#7
dsenette

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you're not connecting wirelessly or anything like that at the house are you? most home routers especially wireless ones...do not allow IPSEC traffic unless you've got IPSEC passthrough turned on (if that setting is available)

may want to give your ISP a ring and see if they are, for any reason, blocking IPSEC VPNs on your connection...some ISPs do this for some reason
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#8
Matasovsky

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dsenette:

I'm not wireless at home.

My connection to the internet is a DSL connection (SBC/Yahoo). It provided a Siemens 4100 modem. I accessed the settings for the modem thru the browser, but haven't much of a clue what I'm looking at that would need to be turned off. Nothing says FIREWALL. After that I don't know what to look for.

I'll try calling the ISP again. Person I talked with on the phone last time was clueless, in my opinion.



bobmad:

My connection issue with my VPN is IT personnell provided me with a disk of software (Cisco VPN software...) and the imported connection information off the CD as well.
I start up the software, highlight the connection, click CONNECT. Cisco says it is connected, but when I go to Start>Run> and type in the network path, it says network path not found.

1. & 2.) So, I'm able to surf, but I don't know if I'm connected to the VPN or not.

3.) I'm assumming the IP address to the server is in the connection information I imported.

4.) I'm unable to ping. We believe we are sending, but not receiving. We think traffic is getting blocked coming back.

5.) Yes and no. IT has directories shared that I have been unable to connect to.

Regarding DNS and DHCP, the IT people I were talking over my head with the same terminology...lol.

So, what is my next move? It almost sounds like someone from our IT department will have to come out to our house to try to fix this. Any way to avoid this? What are the chances they can guide me thru it over the phone?
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#9
dsenette

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you'll need to get your it folk to help with this one....i've got the cisco vpn client myself...but i know how MY hardware is set up (i set it up) etc...without knowledge of what's going on it's going to be hard to troubleshoot....i think it's time to bite the bullet
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