VPN - Efficient Networks 5800 series routers

[screach]

Need some help all.

I have been playing with this for over 2 weeks and I got folks breathing down my neck at this point.

Here is the background.
The System: Windows 2000 Server & Windows 2000 Pro enviroment. Server using Efficient Networks Router/IDSL modem. One NIC (Gigabit Nic Card) for connection. We run DHCP on our server (only one server at the moment). We have purchased the keys to allow our router to support VPN, however after further review I am not sure that was necessary. The keys we purchased allow for IPSec through IKE as well as LTPT. I do not see anywhere in the configuration for PPTP.

Trying to set up VPN over TCP/IP not dial-in. I have configured the users to be able to have access to the VPN in Active Directory. All users will use win2k or winxp.

I originally set up Routing and Remote Access on our server tried connecting several times (all time out failures). I disabled the Routing and Remote Access to try from scratch and now I am getting a 930 error when trying to start RRAS, which according to MS means I need to set up RADIUS (but I do not want to setup radius at this time.)Not sure what happened between this AM and now, but I have somehow changed something and need to get it changed back.

I have read several of the posts on this board and forum, and it appears to be a router configuration error not a windows based error. I have opened up port 1723 and directed it to my servers NIC....can anyone help...PLEASE?

Jeff Screach.....the sound of your world coming to an end at the sight of the dreaded BSOD!

 

[BobMCT]

This might not be the answer you wanted nor that you can deal with. But, I just ended a THREE-WEEK stint trying to configure an Efficient 5940 router and I came very very close but no close enought.

Finally, after exhausting virtually all my options, I finally yanked the 5940 and installed a Netopia router. In a matter of a few minutes I was able to set up the WAN, NAT'ed users, static maps, DHCP server AND multiple VPN's ALL WORKING.

So, moral... if at ALL possible, consider a different brand.

Bob

 

[screach]

Anyone have any other ideas prior to me deep sixing this router? Screach.....the sound of your world coming to an end at the sight of the dreaded BSOD!

 

[rbertram]

I'm using an Efficient 7851 router/modem/voice gateway on a Win2K server. You did not have to buy the key if you just want PPTP connections. All I did was open TCP port 1723 and have had no problems on the server side.

I had problem when I first tried setting up VPN, but I found an an article on the microsoft website. I guess there is a bug in the setup wizard if you choose the VPN option. You need to choose the manual option. Shut it down and restart it from scratch by following the set-by-step directions at this link.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...nol/windows2000serv/deploy/confeat/vpnsol.asp

I hope this works for you.

 

[screach]

I re-booted server, re-installed RRAS following the article you provided. Setup the Connectoid and installed it on a local machine, tried to connect and no go. I have tried using both the Servers IP address and the Routers address in the connectoid with no luck.

Did you use the connectoid or did you simply use the VPN setup in Win2k?

Regards,
Jeff Screach.....the sound of your world coming to an end at the sight of the dreaded BSOD!

 

[rbertram]

The IP address should be to the router that the server is connected to. Inbound TCP port 1723 in the router should be routed to the local IP for the server.

On the client PCs, I have connected both ways, with the connectiod and setting up a new connection in Network Connections. The connectiod is just an easy shortcut if the VPN user isn't as computer savy or you want personalized logon screens. The connectoid is also especially usefull if you are at a remote location and you forgot what the WAN IP address is.

 

[screach]

Boy this one is getting to me. I hav ethe inbound TCP port 1723 forwarded to the Local Servers IP Address. I have set up the connectoid to use the routers address to connect but I still get the error that the computer does not answer and asks me to re-dial.

I know that I can get access to the router because we currently have it set up where our users can enter in the routers IP address (our static IP Address) and gain access to a web page where we have a link to our Outlook Web Access e-mail and our website etc...All stored on our server. I just cannot seem to get past the router to the server when trying to make a VPN connection.


Screach.....the sound of your world coming to an end at the sight of the dreaded BSOD!

 

[rbertram]

Re-dail? I thought you said you were using TCP/IP, ot dial-up?

Have you setup the user accouts to allow dial-in access?

 

[screach]

Yes it is a tcp/ip setup....my mistake meant to say that it wanted to attempt it again. Also the user is set up to have dial in access.

Jeff Screach.....the sound of your world coming to an end at the sight of the dreaded BSOD!

 

[screach]

Bump.....hate to bump messages, but really curious if anyone has any other ideas?

Just checked with my ISP about switching routers and unless I switch our ISP I am stuck with the router we have .... chip in the router is specific to their network (so they say). Screach.....the sound of your world coming to an end at the sight of the dreaded BSOD!

 

[screach]

Bumping one last time to see if any new faces have any new ideas.

After this its Deep Sixing the Router.

Screach.....the sound of your world coming to an end at the sight of the dreaded BSOD!

 

[drfish]

I have a 5861 too, just set it up, our VPN works fine, it went pretty simply because I already had our old ISDN service setup with a VPN, I just gave the 5861 all the same IP and DHCP settings the ISDN router had and swapped them, then I went into the NAT settings and changed the "Current Inbound NAT Setting:" to:

------------------------------------------------------------
| Protocol | First Port# | Last Port# | IP Address | Port# |
------------------------------------------------------------
| TCP | 1723 | 1723 | x.x.x.x | 1723 |
------------------------------------------------------------

Where the IP is the address of the server. It worked fine even on the first try. It's for dial up users but works locally. Our server is also running Win2k Server and DHCP, and I bought the keys as well for security but haven't implemented them yet. This is the only settings I've messed with on the router itself other than changing it's IP address and subnetmask. Are you using the router's local IP address or the static one you have from your ISP? If I use it's local address it won't work (error 751), but if I use the one from the ISP it works fine.

 

[nocjock]

Wondering if you ever got this working? I've got a client with the same issue. Efficient 5851 w/VPN license but I can't get a PPTP connection to come in on it.

I was able to get around it by turning the Efficient into a bridge and hooking a Netopia 7100 with a Ethernet wan port to it. Then used the Netopia to accept the VPN connection. You need another static IP from your circuit provider for the netopia but it works.

 

[screach]

Still not working....but I havnt given up yet...just put it on the back burner during the holidays. If I get it working I will post the solution. Screach.....the sound of your world coming to an end at the sight of the dreaded BSOD!

 

[BobMCT]

Personally I cannot see anything ISP specific about your siemens router unless its using some proprietary feature exclusive to this model/make.

I'll state again, I deep sixed the new Siements 5940 in favor of a Netopia R series and the VPN went up in a couple of minutes. I've installed six more new vpns using the Netopia and no problems.

Anyone interested in purchased a new, unused Siements 5940 router???

 

[screach]

According to my ISP. The router has a proprietary chip in it that is used to allow for communication between their servers and ours. What I read between the lines is they either A. are lying to me. or B. They use it to measure and manage the bandwidth on their network.

According to them we cannot use ANY other router.

I am currently investigating a new ISP in the SW Florida area for either partial T1 access, Wireless Partial T1 or high bandwidth ADSL. (If you know of a good one let me know as I am new to the area.) Screach.....the sound of your world coming to an end at the sight of the dreaded BSOD!