VPN drops using VNC and XP

[chrispetty]

When using VNC on an XP host machine to connnect to a remote Vista machine, I can make an initial connection, but the VNC window freezes after several minutes of inactivity. If I continue to keep the machine active, then my connection holds up. Similarly, I have spent time connected to the machine while another user gives a presentation then my connection holds up. I have also found that if I disable the my Windows Firewall, then I can leave the VNC window connected and inactive for several minutes without losing my connection--with the Firewall on, the connection will fail during the same period. Has anybody experienced this? suggestions?

Thanks,
Chris

My machine:
Dell Latitude
CPU Intel T2300 (1.66 GHz)
XP SP2 using windows VPN connection
VNC Viewer Personal Edition P4.4.3(r16583)

 

[North323]

is there some way you can increase the keep alive on the server or firewall? you can always set up a constant ping like ping -t X.X.X.X with the firewall on and that should keep the vpn connected as well.