IPSec Components locked in XP Home Edition?

[Mike]

Hi all,

I'm having problems connecting to Sonicwall VPNs using Sonicwall's VPN
Client from a XP HOME ED PC. Btw, I have NO problems from my XP Pro PC.

I have the latest VPN client software (ver 3.1.556 and even tried the beta 4
which I rolled back from) so that is not the issue. Both PCs are at the
same location where the XP Pro is successful and the XP Home is not.

I called Sonicwall and after 1+ hour they said that I should contact MS to
find out how to unlock IPSec Components that are locked in XP Home Edition.

Please help!

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Benny Van]

Hi all,

I'm having problems connecting to Sonicwall VPNs using Sonicwall's VPN
Client from a XP HOME ED PC. Btw, I have NO problems from my XP Pro PC.

I have the latest VPN client software (ver 3.1.556 and even tried the beta 4
which I rolled back from) so that is not the issue. Both PCs are at the
same location where the XP Pro is successful and the XP Home is not.

I called Sonicwall and after 1+ hour they said that I should contact MS to
find out how to unlock IPSec Components that are locked in XP Home Edition.

Please help!

Thanks,
Mike

XP home is not designed for the Network Usage, so IPSec is not
included in the Network Component.
In order to use it, you need to update Windows XP home to pro.

 

[3c273]

Sorry for the piggyback but I don't see the original post. The Sonicwall
Global VPN Client is supported under Windows XP Home and, as far as I know,
does not rely on Windows IPSec Policy Agent. I'm not sure which Sonicwall
appliance you are using but you might try enabling the "Network Debug"
logging ,(that's what it is called on the TZ170), and see what error, if
any, is being returned.

Louis

 

[Mike]

Thanks for the replies.

The specific area where it's failing is at the end of phase 2, it fails to
renew the IP address. I'm not sure why this would fail, but Sonicwall
Support says it has to do with IPSec, yet he didn't seem positive. It is a
Sonicwall TZ170. He suggested I try enabling L2TP on the Sonicwall and
connect using the Windows connections. I too, saw where it said the Global
VPN Client is supported in XP Home, but when I mentioned it to him he didn't
have any answer to why it wasn't working and then suggested I call MS to
find out if XP Home supports IPSec.

If I compare the VPN client log between the XP Home and XP Pro PCs,
everything looks the same up until where the XP Home PC fails to renew the
IP address. Both appear to complete Phase 1 and 2 just fine.

So I'm left with a PC (which is just temporary for the next couple weeks)
with XP Home. Upgrading is not an option. I think it's ridiculous that MS
purposely limits the functionality of their products, especially in this
case. Secure protocols that allow you to use your home PC to connect to
your work network. Would MS rather you use inferior PPTP and L2TP
connections so they can charge more for the "business" OS?

I personally don't like XP Home and avoid it all costs, but as an IT
consultant I run into a lot of people with it on their PCs that need to
connect to the corporate network. There has to be a way to work around
these backward thinking Microsoft limitations.

 

[3c273]

Unfortunately, I don't have an XP Home client to test with but I would think
that if it was specific to XP Home, there would be more posts from TZ170
owners complaining about this, and a quick Google search doesn't seem to
indicate that. Do you have acces to another XP Home machine for testing?
Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.
Louis

 

[Mike]

I know. I didn't see other posts about this. However I did run into this
before while trying to help a user that was connecting to my customer's VPN
via TZ170. That user had Home Edition and had problems. I had them switch
to a PC with Pro and no problems.

Sonicwall help is useless on this and will neither confirm or deny Home
Edition being the problem. They do elude to it being the problem because of
IPSec. My temporary work around was installing a virtual machine (in this
case Virtual Box) with a non-home edition of Windows.

Thanks!

 

[3c273]

That XP Home system doesn't have a Cisco VPN client installed by any chance?
I've read about confilcts arising from this.
Louis