Re: PPTPD connect issue

Hello there,

would you or anyone be so kind to forward "Greg's" reply? Its neither in my Inbox nor in my Spam box :-(

I am happy to believe that the issue is related to client side equipment, that would be supported by the troubleshooting and research i have done so far. That said, is it really that simple? I have been using a commercial PPTP VPN service for years behind NAT routers without this kind of strange issue, and even while i could not connect to "my" VPN when it was acting out - connecting to other PPTP VPN's was fine. I have had this very issue in three different networks; one using a FreeBSD PF Firewall router, one using Ubuntu with iptables, and then my own network which uses a Linksys rv042 VPN router, nothing fancy. I would really like to diagnose and figure out just what causes this sort of trip up, and what do the other PPTP VPN servers have in their settings that is different from mine?

Could you give a pointer as to what to look for during packet analysis that would help further prove the problem to be on the client side? Maybe a call id field with a missing value?


By the way - the log file message i am getting when things are suddenly not working for new connections is LCP: timeout sending Config-Requests

I looked at pretty much everything that could cause the above, and usually its related to GRE or firewall generally - or a Routers VPN passthrough function (GRE again) - not in my case i think. 

with best regards,
D


On Aug 13, 2012, at 7:42 AM, James Cameron wrote:

> I agree with Greg, the problem is going to be in the firmware of the
> router equipment, because it is failing to forward PPTP packets under
> certain circumstances.
> 
> The call ID field gradually increments, and that may be a trigger, but
> so might available memory in the router.
> 
> Newer firmware is unlikely to be available for consumer routers, but
> it may be worth checking to see if a fix is available.  Third-party
> firmware may also be available.
> 
> You might also avoid the problem by switching to another VPN
> technology.  PPTP requires very complex support within a router, if
> that router performs IP address translation.  OpenVPN by comparison
> requires no more router support than any UDP or TCP application.
> 
> -- 
> James Cameron
> http://quozl.linux.org.au/
> 
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Live Security Virtual Conference
Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and 
threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions 
will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware 
threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/