Netgear FVS318 & Safenet Softremote VPN?

[dellboy]

Has anyone successfully set up a VPN connection between the Netgear FVS318 ProSafe Firewall/VPN and SafeNet SoftRemote v9.0 software.

Netgear make out its really easy and yet after days of trying I can not get a tunnel connected. I have all the documentation that Netgear have produced and even with the simplest of security (working on the theory that once it works I will build on the basic foundations) the VPN tunnel will not connect. I can see in the logs that the FW and client are communicating but thats as far as it goes.

While Netgear say that they support this set up all documentation I have been sent has not resolved the problem.

The firewall is running firmware v1.2 and I have tried to set up a connection using both an XP and a 2000 client but without success.

If anyone has any experience of this then I would be greatful of any advice. I haven't written much detail here as there doesn't seem to be any other discussion of the FVS318 and SoftRemote and therefore maybe its not worth me writing loads. If anyone has had any experience of this set up please let me know

Cheers

 

[Spiggsy]

Did you get it to work yet ??

I should be doing the same thing in a few weeks for one of my clients too, as long as they sign up to it.

 

[dellboy]

...yes I got it working eventually although the settings are not the most secure, its all based on the password and thats about it. It did work in the end however although I want to retest. I have noticed that once you install SofeRemote you can not change the settings, it defaults back to the first time setup of the VPN settings, even if you change them. I think SoftRemote will have to be completely uninstalled and reinstalled on the laptop.

My personal suggestion, dependant upon circumstances is to buy another firewall and install a LAN to LAN VPN. It works a treat and the firewall is only about £30 more than the SoftRemote software!! So if its for a static remote user/office go with LAN to LAN VPN, far more secure I would suggest as well.

If and when the cleint goos ahead let me know and I will send you any docs I have etc.

Cheers

 

[jcolby]

I have the fvs318 and lo and behold, netgear says that the windows vpn client works but only with static ip addresses.
Do you know of where to get the safenet client for free?
must you pay 149.00 for it ? is there any free clients that work for it when used by laptops who are using dynamic ip's?
any info would be greatful.

 

[jboshear]

I am having the same problem. Can you email the specifics of how you solved it? I have FVS-318 firmware 1.1 and SoftRemote Version 10.

I agree with you that setting up tunnels with two routers is much better but we need to support roaming laptop users so we need SoftRemote.

Thanks.

 

[dellboy]

jcolby - I don't know where you can get the software free.

jboshear - firstly you need to update the firmware on the router to v1.3 that was the first request Netgear made - I seem to remeber that this will completely reset your config so make sure you back up the config file prior to updating the firmware.
As regards the documentation drop me an e-mail address and I will try and dig it out. Just had a quick look and couldn't find it so am hoping its on a clients e-mail system, let me take a look and I'll get back to you. Drop me a contact address.

....and once its all setup it does work really well, its relatively cheap and fairly secure

Cheers

 

[jboshear]

Thanks Dellboy, I got it fixed yesterday by upgrading, which is what you suggested so if I hadn't already done it your suggestion would have fixed it for me.

Just so you (and the world) knows. I emailed Netgear and copied SafeNet telling them the problem and what versions of each I had.

I got a nice letter from SafeNet suggesting I upgrade Netgear and they attached an updated configuration document (the one on Netgears site in old).

The next day I got a nasty-gram from Netgear telling me I had to buy their Premium Support to order get a response from them.

 

[Ecaboodle]

Trying to setup a netgear myself, having read this. Think I will have to put in a second router at my clients. Have been trying to connect a Apple Mac to the router using Tunnel Builder.

Big companies............. ;(

If you can't fix it in 20 minutes call someone who can.

 

[shaferbus]

Nice to see I'm not the only one in Netgear-hell.

I haven't connected successfully yet either, but one thing that might be of interest is that the latest firmware upgrade for the FVS318 gives you the option of using FQDN instead of an IP address for the remote client. With a Dynamic DNS service that should address the problem of not having a static IP.

As for my problems, I'm using an XP Home client. The two machines are talking, but I get an error 792 (authentication timeout) on the client end, and the router logs say it's dropping "suspicious UDP packets". I set it up as best I could using Netgear's documents (they should change their name to Hoover...). Of course, those were written for Win2K, and the properties and terminology are completely different (thanks Bill G).

Hope the firmware tip helps someone, and if you have any insights on my issues, they would be appreciated

Tim

 

[ourITguy]

Netgear hell indeed!Very frustrating.Hey jboshear- I'd love to get a look at that doc they sent you-would you mind sending it to me?Every little bit helps.Been pounding away at this for some time now-trying to make it happen without client software.Using xp home on the client end.If it gets through I'll post detailed info for all.Thanks.
ljacksc@netscape.net