Vista/EVDO/SecureClient NGXR60HFA02 Connection problems

[MoreBeer]

Hi:

We are testing Vista 32bit laptops with SecureClient NGXR60HFA02 (without the recently released Security Hotfix 01) and Verizon EVDO REV A PCMCIA aircards on Lenovo Thinkpad X60s, X61s, and T61Ps.

About 10-15 seconds after the VPN client is connected, the Verizon software reports 'Network Disconnected' and the VPN client disconnects. If I reconnect, the IP address has changed and SecureClient is similiarly furious. I've also tried NDIS mode with the aircard, and same behavior. The aircards work fine with the VPN client running and idle, just not when we build the tunnel. Wifi and wired Ethernet works fine, with and without VPN. We are able to maintain a tunnel when connected to a Linksys WRT54G3G-ST (EVDO to ethernet/wifi bridge/router), and the Verizon cards work fine on our standard XP SP2 builds.

I'm able to reproduce the same behavior using SNX to both a Connectra and a R65 gateway. We hand out 172.x office mode IPs everywhere, so that is the only commonality I can think of so far. When connected to the Verizon network, we do get a routable IP address.

The Secureclient logs show something interesting:

Interface change: PANTECH PC Card WWAN Controller removed

Session drops. Then, 30 seconds later:

Interface change: PANTECH PC Card WWAN Controller interface added, current ip: 169.254.14.242

User Desktop Security Policy Loaded

Interface change: PANTECH PC Card WWAN Controller interface IP changed, previous ip: 169.254.14.242, current ip: 75.xxx.xxx.xxx

So, it looks like something is causing the interface to get removed shortly after the VPN session is established, and re-added after the VPN session drops.

Any ideas?

-mb

[melipla]

I had a user with similar symptoms as yours. He was using a usb cellular modem (for at&t) and recently his secureclient connections would drop him 5-20 seconds after he connected. I looked at the logs and it appeared that his client was changing IP addresses, I informed him how this would cause the client to lose connectivity until he reconnected and that he should contact his ISP.

He spent about an hour on the phone with his ISP, the problem ended up being in the accelerator program which was part of his package with the modem. The particular program he used (apparently there are many) is called ByteMobile Acceleration client which is installed on the laptop as part of their Communications Manager application. Instead of uninstalling the program their support had him go into Settings for Communication Manager and change startup type to manual from auto, under advanced tab changed from a standard optimize all supported protocols setting to a custom one where all protocols are moved to the unoptimized column.

It sounded like this was a known problem and sounds eerily similar to yours.

HTH