Error 721 during VPN connection

[RustyAfro]

This one is very wierd. I have two workstations connected at a satellite office to the same DSL router. Workstation 1 connects to the VPN using the connection manager with no problems.

However, workstation 2 times out once it reaches the password verification. Even if I disconnect
Workstation 1's VPN connection and use the same user/pass for workstation 2's, the same error.\ - "ErrorCode = 721 ErrorSource = RAS"

Workstation 2 can connect to RWW, view email, even connect to the server remotely through the RWW interface, just not connect to the VPN.

Any ideas??

 

[RustyAfro]

Just a quick update... I shutdown the Router and rebooted it. This time, I tried workstation 2 first and it successfully connected to the VPN. Now workstation 1 times out with the same error.

It seems obvious then that only one computer is able to connect to the VPN. Not sure why rebooting the router made a difference, but there you have it.

Any tips for getting the router to handle multiple VPN connections at the same time, or is there some kind of limitation I am not aware of??

 

[RustyAfro]

Did some more research and realize now that some routers do not support multiple VPN connections... I have a DLINK Vonage router to work with. It does seem to have some advance router functionality so perhaps there are some settings I can change. No luck finding anything yet though.

If I have to get new hardware, then I may consider a permanent VPN. I have no idea where to start with that kind of setup however so any advice on hardware would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ShackDaddy]

What I've done is buy Watchguard FireBox Edge firewall routers and set them up at different satellite offices and SOHOs and then set up VPNs between those devices. There are a lot of other competing products out there.

I don't really know how you could make the two VPN thing work with that DLINK router, but I assume you also have to have VOIP working. I currently have Altigen VOIP boxes working in conjunction with the Watchguard devices.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[RustyAfro]

Hi ShackDaddy,

Thanks for the advice....I was really hoping to avoid complicating this as we wanted to deploy everything this Monday and the learning curve has been high as it is. But we need multiple VPNs in this scenario.

Could you explain a bit more where the watchguard router would be placed on the network that is connected to the actual server? I have two NICs, one which is attached to a switch.

If I setup the hardware VPN, is that in effect extending the network? Ideally, I would like to have the remote computers "login" to the domain just as if they were at the primary office. However, I would settle for a VPN setup that works just like the SBS VPN connection manager does at this point.

Any good articles you know of that would help me setup this up fairly quickly?

 

[RustyAfro]

Ack, I just checked the prices on that hardware. I should have mentioned this job is on a shoestring budget. Any low cost hardware options to accomplish any of this?

 

[RustyAfro]

Another question to add to the above. If I get a router that supports multiple VPN tunnels and place it in the remote office, can SBS 2003 server create multiple VPN connections to it considering the remote office will be connecting to it with the same IP address?

 

[RustyAfro]

Note, I just started a thread in the VPN forum to assist with this as well - thread463-1324870