[vpn-help] Shrewsoft VPN Client not working properly after standby

[Nikolaos Milas]

On 28/7/2013 8:01 μμ, Jim Harle wrote:

> I don't have a solution for your scenario, but a suggestion and a question.  First the question - when your physical Ethernet connection is dropped, how much time passes before you attempt the disconnect/reconnect?  It would indeed be odd if the Shrew client never ("never" meaning more than, say, a minute) timed out with a message like "the gateway is not responding."

First, thanks for your reply. Second, I tested and it does terminate 
after a minute or so. So, things are not so odd after all.

> Now the suggestion - when your laptop gets into the state of "vpn-connects-but-doesn't-pass-traffic," here is a faster thing to try instead of rebooting:
> 1) Disconnect the VPN client
> 2) Open Control Panel --> System and Security --> Administrative Tools --> Services (right-click the bottom-left Start Screen icon to get to Control Panel in the first place)
> 3) Stop both the "ShrewSoft IKE Daemon" and "ShrewSoft IPSEC Daemon" services
> 4) Verify both services have stopped (F5 to refresh view)
> 5) Start both of the above services
> 6) Retry the VPN connection
>
> My experience has been that the "ShrewSoft IKE Daemon" will take a long time to stop, and Windows will complain that it couldn't stop the service, yet it does still stop.  Once in a blue moon, my PC will get into the state where the Shrew VPN will connect and pass traffic, but the VPN disconnects a short time after (~ 30 seconds).  Restarting the Shrew services clears this up.

That did the trick! Thanks! Now I can fix things without rebooting.

I hope, however, Shrewsoft sometime fixes VPN Client so that the VPN 
does not "hang" like this. Are they aware of this behavior? I hope they 
keep an eye at this maillist.

> And lastly, if you're using Windows 8 without a Start Menu replacement like Start8, best of luck to you...but that's for a different discussion thread.  :-)

I've read that M$ are planning an SP (or something like that) for Win 8 
probably later this year (see e.g.: 
http://www.zdnet.com/windows-8-1-the-return-of-the-start-button-7000016535/), 
which will add the Start Menu. So, I am waiting for the moment; it's not 
(very) terrible.

Best regards,
Nick