VPN connection drops every 3 minutes

[John Reedman]

Hi everyone,

I need a steer to discover a problem that has now been running for nearly a
month - before that the vpn worked on my 1mbps broadband.

There is one other possible change that I cannot verify easily - AOL, along
with all other UK ISP's have/are doubling their Broadband connection
speeds - mine now reports a 2mbps download connection but I am uncertain
when this changeover occurred exactly and cannot say whether it was before
or after the start of my VPN disconnect problems.

I have listed what I hope are the key facts below:

1. Outlook Web Access to my work MS Exchange Svr 2003 has significant
delays and /or freezes.

2. VPN connects to work MS Exchange Svr 2003 - logs on and stays connected
for 2 min 50'ish seconds and disconnects, (which stuffs my normal, non-Web,
Outlook connection when everything works as it should)

3. ISP is AOL and does not appear to be the problem because
3.a All other internet related activity is 100% fine
3.b Using Netgear DG834Gv2 there are two laptops and a desktop using the
same connection.
3.c Laptops use Windows XP - Desktop uses Windows 2000
3.d Laptops use wireless connection - 1x Netgear PCMCIA connector, 1x Belkin
PCMCIA connector
3.d Wireless net set to 11.g (54mbps)
3.e Desktop uses Ethernet connection

4. Swapped out Netgear Router and used BT Voyager 100 ADSL Modem to connect
to AOL on the Win2000 Desktop.
4.a With AOL connection to the Desktop the vpn connection to the remote
Exchange server stayed solid and was still going after 100 mins with no
problems.
4.b Other internet activity was also possible at the same time on the single
machine.
4.c Of course - dropping the AOL session terminated the vpn connection.
4.d Outlook Web Access provided by MS Exchange Svr 2003 was excellent with
no significant delays and /or freezes.

5. The only difference between the BT Voyager ISP connection and the Netgear
ISP connection was the ISP sign-on name.
5.a For the BT Voyager sign-on I used the main AOL Account Name.
5.b For the Netgear sign-on I use a separate AOL account name for the main
account, (AOL allows up to 6 additional names on a single account), so that
the Netgear can stay connected whilst other AOL and Internet sessions are
being run from the computers connected to the Home Network.

6. All Netgear settings have been thoroughly checked - over and over again.
(NB. AOL uses an MTU of 1400 which is not normal/default setting).

7. Only problem is with the connections to the vpn Exchange server via
Netgear.

Work believes it may be Netgear or AOL causing the problem, (but they have
no answers!).

I believe the above set of tests results eliminates AOL and cannot see why
the Netgear should only pick access to the work server to give any problems.

Anyone any ideas to help identify and/or resolve the problem please.

Thanks in anticipation - John

 

[3viewsmails]

I also have exactly same problem.

Hi everyone,

I need a steer to discover a problem that has now been running for nearly a
month - before that the vpn worked on my 1mbps broadband.

There is one other possible change that I cannot verify easily - AOL, along
with all other UK ISP's have/are doubling their Broadband connection
speeds - mine now reports a 2mbps download connection but I am uncertain
when this changeover occurred exactly and cannot say whether it was before
or after the start of my VPN disconnect problems.

I have listed what I hope are the key facts below:

1. Outlook Web Access to my work MS Exchange Svr 2003 has significant
delays and /or freezes.

2. VPN connects to work MS Exchange Svr 2003 - logs on and stays connected
for 2 min 50'ish seconds and disconnects, (which stuffs my normal, non-Web,
Outlook connection when everything works as it should)

3. ISP is AOL and does not appear to be the problem because
3.a All other internet related activity is 100% fine
3.b Using Netgear DG834Gv2 there are two laptops and a desktop using the
same connection.
3.c Laptops use Windows XP - Desktop uses Windows 2000
3.d Laptops use wireless connection - 1x Netgear PCMCIA connector, 1x Belkin
PCMCIA connector
3.d Wireless net set to 11.g (54mbps)
3.e Desktop uses Ethernet connection

4. Swapped out Netgear Router and used BT Voyager 100 ADSL Modem to connect
to AOL on the Win2000 Desktop.
4.a With AOL connection to the Desktop the vpn connection to the remote
Exchange server stayed solid and was still going after 100 mins with no
problems.
4.b Other internet activity was also possible at the same time on the single
machine.
4.c Of course - dropping the AOL session terminated the vpn connection.
4.d Outlook Web Access provided by MS Exchange Svr 2003 was excellent with
no significant delays and /or freezes.

5. The only difference between the BT Voyager ISP connection and the Netgear
ISP connection was the ISP sign-on name.
5.a For the BT Voyager sign-on I used the main AOL Account Name.
5.b For the Netgear sign-on I use a separate AOL account name for the main
account, (AOL allows up to 6 additional names on a single account), so that
the Netgear can stay connected whilst other AOL and Internet sessions are
being run from the computers connected to the Home Network.

6. All Netgear settings have been thoroughly checked - over and over again.
(NB. AOL uses an MTU of 1400 which is not normal/default setting).

7. Only problem is with the connections to the vpn Exchange server via
Netgear.

Work believes it may be Netgear or AOL causing the problem, (but they have
no answers!).

I believe the above set of tests results eliminates AOL and cannot see why
the Netgear should only pick access to the work server to give any problems.

Anyone any ideas to help identify and/or resolve the problem please.

Thanks in anticipation - John

 

[John Reedman]

Is this the only forum you have tried for a solution?

I have looked everywhere I can think of to try to find the answer - but so
far without success.

Do you have colleagues who also use the same VPN to the same exchange server
who are able to connect and stay connected - or is it only you who has the
problem?

In my case there are at least five other staff using the same system who do
not have the same problem as me.

There must be a way of refining the problem down in some way so that the
solution comes down to a specific setting or piece of software.

Thanks - John

 

[Steve]

Not sure if it is relevant but I have had a similar problem with VPN. I
discovered that my problem related to the Outlook Express setting:

"Tools->Options->Connection->Dialup->Hang-up after sending and receiving"

Perhaps something similar is causing your problem.

Cheers
Steve

 

[John Reedman]

Thanks Steve,

I checked on my main XP Pro machine the settings which have been causing
your problem.

My settings are not the same as yours I have listed below in case this
prompts further thoughts from the 'Band of Brothers' out there.

My settings, on the main XP Pro machine, are

Dial-up: "Ask before switching dial-up connections"

Internet Connection Settings: Outlook Express shares your Internet
Connection settings with Internet Explorer

So I clicked the "Change" button

This brings up another Panel headed "Internet Properties" with

Dial-up and Virtual Private Network settings showing:

(a) AOL Dial-On Demand feature - Please do NOT delete this (Default), and
(b) Connect to Small Business Server

Highlighting either and clicking the settings button brings up a specific
headed panel with check boxes.
The only box checked on each specific Panel is "Automatically detect
settings"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(back on the "Internet Properties" panel but below the list of connections
available)
I.E. Underneath a further option set is -

Choose Settings if you need to configure a proxy server for a connection:
(mine are set at)

"Never dial a connection"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Underneath is -

Local Area Network (LAN) settings - pressing the "LAN Settings" button
brings up a further Panel

The Panel is headed "Local Area Network (LAN) Settings"

The only box checked on this Panel is "Automatically detect settings"

Thanks anyway for your thoughts - if only mine could be solved with a
setting change like yours has been.

Regards - John

 

[Steve]

You could try your VPN connection without IE or Outlook active. Its a bit of
a long shot but it would discount any connection management activities
performed by these two applications (which turned out to be my problem).
Make sure the "Redialing options->idle time before hangup" is set to never
for this test.

 

[John Reedman]

Hi Steve,

Nice thought but shut down IE & Outlook and still VPN disconnected.

Good line of reasoning though.

Tomorrow I will try to replace the Netgear Router with a Linksys WAG54G that
they have at my local PC World Store.

Cheers - (I will be back - to report at least).

Thanks again - John

 

[John Reedman]

Thanks to everyone who has thought about my problem.

Using the good old engineering principle of 'try another one to see if the
problem shifts' I resorted to installing a new Linksys WAG54G ADSL Router.

This was a complete failure with the originally installed firmware.
The best site I found to replace the original firmware was
http://www.linksysinfo.org/

System now runs for 24hours at a time and VPN is reliable enough to use.

Seems Netgear sites and help are better than for Linksys but all I needed
was a solid VPN.

The Netgear ran for 9 months OK and then failed in away which appears
unsoluable.

I did get a lot of helpful suggestions from the Expert-Exchange forum,
($9.95 for a months subscription), but was unable to get the answer - except
for a change box suggestion.

If anyone out there reads this I am sorry it is not more help.

Try a box swap, try upgrading the firmware - but remember to backup/save the
old settings before you load the new ones.

There is a good history of previous firmware versions on FTP sites for
Netgear so if one version does not solve your problem another might, (some
versions are reported as better than others! and all appear to come from
NetGear)

Linksys does not appear to be as well supported - the Linsys site is not up
to much in my opinion. The linksysinfo site, nothing to do with Linksys,
identifies several 3rd party developers for Linksys router firmware.
As I said, backup your firmware and try an alternative after looking into
the comments supplied.

Can't believe how much time I have spent lokking for an answer - hope this
helps you if you are in need.

Bye - John