Virtual PC and VPN

[Glowball]

Hi all, I've set up a Virtual PC 2007 on my Vista host computer to run XP. I did this so I could install Cisco VPN Client software that is not compatible with Vista. This way I can use the VPN but still work in Vista. The problem is that I can't get authenticated. It simply pops back to the authentication screen with no error or message.

I've read that I need to set up networking to "Virtual Switch" but that doesn't seem to be an option in Virtual PC 2007. I have one network adapter in this machine.

I'm not sure what to do next. I'm pretty clueless when it comes to networks and VPNs. Do I need an additional network adapter? How do I set this up? The VPN has to be obtained using this software.

Thanks for any pointers!

 

[burtsbees]

What is acting as the VPN server? Do you have the info set up correctly in the client?

Burt

 

[Glowball]

I'm not very familiar with networks and VPNs, so hopefully I can explain this well enough. I am connecting to an outside server using a VPN client. It works very well on an XP laptop I have, so I know it works. The client installation is configured in the virtual machine exactly how it is configured on my XP laptop. The installation for the VPN client is compiled by the people who run the VPN server so it comes preconfigured when I install it.

The only difference between the two is that one lets me log in and the other one doesn't, with no error screens. Thanks for your help, Burt.

 

[burtsbees]

I thought that Cisco VPN client 5.0 works with Vista...I'm not too hip on the virtualization thing...I will check on Cisco's website to see if there are any fixes for Vista. I do know that Vista has a lot of security features that you have to configure to get things to work. Have you disabled Windows Firewall?

Burt

 

[burtsbees]

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cach...sta&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a

HAve you tried the Windows VPN client?

Burt

 

[Glowball]

Cisco says their VPN client doesn't work with Vista x64, only x32, and they don't even have a beta in the works yet. Windows Firewall is disabled on both the host and the virtual machine, replaced by Kaspersky's firewall.

I found something interesting at

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2005/10/04/477195.aspx

but it's really over my head. Does this sound like a good solution to you?

 

[Glowball]

I've asked for the correct settings to get the Vista VPN client to work, but information is slow to be had. I'm not sure how to translate the settings from the Cisco client to the Vista client. The owners of the VPN server officially do not support Vista (it's a government site and they probably won't support it for years, yet) so my hopes aren't very high.

 

[burtsbees]

No, NAT should not have anything to do with it, since it works on the XP machine with the same settings. I assume the Vista you have is the 64 bit edition?
You should not need another NIC, unless Virtual PC definitely requires it.

Burt

 

[Glowball]

Yep, it's the 64-bit version of Vista. I'm kind of stuck. I talked with someone at VMWare and they said that the Cisco software isn't supported, but people are making it work. My next move may be to install the demo of VMWare and see how that goes. It really is starting to look like MS Virtual PC won't do what I need it to do.