[vpn-help] "Silent" client failure

[Matthew Grooms]

On 2/25/2010 4:14 PM, Tim Mensch wrote:
> I'm using the ShrewSoft client to connect to my work VPN. I don't have
> the specifics of the work VPN configuration, but I can get them if I need.
>
> The problem I'm having seems to be on the client side, though, in that
> no log or warning messages appear on the VPN server (I checked with IT
> about this issue once, and they didn't have any idea why it would be
> failing--and the log showed nothing for my client until I disconnected).
>
> What happens is this: After some period of time, my active connection to
> the VPN will no longer work. If I try to go to any web site, it will
> time out, whether its a VPN-based site or not (all my traffic ends up
> routed through the VPN). There is no indication in the client that the
> connection isn't functioning, nor as I mentioned is there any indication
> on the server.
>
> Closing the connection and reopening it doesn't help. Killing ALL the
> ShrewSoft services and restarting them sometimes helps; occasionally one
> will get into a state where I can't kill it, and under those
> circumstances it sometimes won't work to restart the services. But even
> then, sometimes it will.
>
> After killing and restarting the services, I can then (usually) make a
> connection that will actually forward packets, at which point everything
> works for a while again for anywhere from a half hour to 8+ hours. I
> haven't found a particular pattern in when it fails. Another fun fact: I
> can stop and restart each of the services independently, and it doesn't
> seem to fix the issue. It seems I have to kill all three and restart
> them all in order for it to work; I haven't tried the various
> permutations of just two of them, though.
>
> I'm on Windows 7 x64, and I'm behind a NAT firewall. I've reproduced
> this issue on two different client systems (the other system is the one
> that BSODs after running the client for a while, even on 2.1.6 beta 3,
> so I'm sticking with my laptop for now). I've tried 2.1.5 and each of
> the 2.1.6 betas as they've been released; all have identical behavior.
> Currently I'm on 2.1.6 beta 4. To be clear: The VPN normally works fine
> for hours at a time.
>
> I finally managed to run the trace utility, and when in a bad state the
> log below is what I see: Some of these IP addresses are on the VPN, like
> 192.168.253.51, which is the DNS server on my office LAN. This log
> continued with similar messages until I killed the process and
> restarted. After which point, VPN addresses would show "policy found" in
> the log. I can post parts of that log as well, but it seems less likely
> to be of use.
>

Tim,

Did you mean to include some log output? I don't see any.

-Matthew