IPSec VPN through MS Firewall

[Guest]

I'm trying to setup my boss's laptop to access our office network from home.
We have a Linksys router and Linksys Client VPN. The client works fine when
the Firewall is turned off, but, I do not want to leave the computer in that
state. I have enabled exceptions for Linksys VPN client and Port 500 to no
avail.

Does anyone know how to do this with out disabling and enabling the firewall
when they want to connect to the office?

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

I'm trying to setup my boss's laptop to access our office network
from home. We have a Linksys router and Linksys Client VPN. The
client works fine when the Firewall is turned off, but, I do not want
to leave the computer in that state. I have enabled exceptions for
Linksys VPN client and Port 500 to no avail.

Does anyone know how to do this with out disabling and enabling the
firewall when they want to connect to the office?

Since the Windows firewall doesn't block any outbound traffic, and the VPN
connection is an outbound one, this seems odd. I don't know what client
Linksys is actually using (SafeNet?) but I've run many VPN clients without
having any issues with the Windows firewall.

What are the exact symptoms when the firewall is enabled?
Have you checked the Linksys support pages for help with this?

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply.

The client is an IPSec client and goes through three steps; Connecting,
Activating Policy, and Verifying Network. With the Firewall enabled it gets
to the Verifying Network and times out. It does not make sense if it has
already established a connection but that is what happens.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Since the Windows Firewall is stateful I would think that it would be able
to manage the connection but maybe not in this case. What may help is to
enable the logging of the Windows Firewall to see exactly what traffic is
being dropped when you are trying to make the connection. I found the link
below about a discussion about using the Linksys VPN client that shows the
same problem with unfortunately no apparent resolution from Linksys
pport. --- Steve

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1154939&page=1

 

[Guest]

Steven, Thanks very much for your post. I too have spent a good deal of
time talking with Linksys Tech support. I have tried everything suggested in
the URL. I guess Linksys has not brought their tech support up to Cisco's
level. I will use the batch file to disable the firewall.