[vpn-help] VPN DROPS USING VERIZON VZAccess Manager

[Matthew Grooms]

On 9/29/2010 12:15 PM, Chris wrote:
> I have the same problem! has anyone solved this yet?
>
> Paul Edelbrock<PAUL at ...>  writes:
>
>>
>> Shrew VPN client on 64bit Win7 works perfectly over my DSL circuit but when
> I am on the road and connect using my Verizon EVDO USB modem the VPN
> connection drops after 20-30 seconds.  Is there a NAT setting I need to tweak
> or some other setting?
>>
>> Any input would be greatly appreciated.
>>

Paul and Chris,

I wish I had a magic bullet that would solve this issue for you. I can 
tell you that I have two different mobile broadband adapters that I use 
to test the Shrew Soft client Windows 7. The first is a Cricket device 
which installs as a legacy dialup adapter. The second is an AT&T device 
which is a true Windows 7 mobile broadband device. I assume the Verizon 
device will act like the latter.

Most software distributed by mobile broadband providers are customized 
versions of drivers and software originally developed by the OEM ( the 
companies that manufacture the actual broadband devices ). These custom 
modifications cause a lot of issues and in some cases actually make the 
device act like legacy devices ( non-native windows 7 mobile broadband 
adapters ) which is rather sad. This is all for the sake of delivering 
fancy well branded user tools that do very little for the user. Windows 
7 has a native management interface to interact with broadband devices. 
They just show up as mobile broadband connections, similar to the way 
wireless networks appear under your system tray network icon. You just 
click on the icon, select the broadband provider network and select connect.

To resolve this issue with my AT&T device, I had to uninstall the AT&T 
software and install the reference software distributed by the original 
equipment manufacturer. There have been several reports of other users 
on this mailing list that have done the same thing to resolve similar 
issues with devices from other broadband providers. In some cases, the 
software from the OEM was newer and fixed underlying issues. In other 
cases, the broadband provider software was just plain broken. Depending 
on how adventurous you are, you may try to do the same.

-Matthew