VPN and IP address stopped working from Plusnet only connection

[#1]

Hi
I am hoping someone can help.
Sunday my VPN access to work stopped working.
Note works from other ISP/connection.
Also the same IP address when typed in a browser allow remote login to mail server webmail.
This has stopped and times out in IE9, chrome, firefox etc.
All other internet connectivity seems to work OK.
Our IT support company confirm there are no changes and works everywhere else.
Plus net have changed the setting to low on firewall.
We have tried on various PCs, labtops, Ipads & a hudl and all get the same issue.
On PC's disabled firewall (Eset) but as same issue on other devices suggest isn't related.
We have changed the router for the same model (DNG2200) Netgear and still doesn't work,
Plus net support have suggested raising a community forum entry for any ideas.
I would very much appreciate any comments that you may have.
Note suddenly stopped on Sunday but over the last week the VPN connection has been more unstable and needed re-connecting more. Normally would be 95% stable. If that is a clue.
Thanks
Note internal plusnet support log is Question #80462354 for any staff reading this.

[#2]

Hi Paul,
Welcome to the forums.
Can you explain in a little more detail the symptoms you are experiencing?  Does your VPN totally fail to connect?  What error message do you get?  When you refer to "same IP address when typed in a browser allow remote login to mail server webmail" do you mean the IP address of your employer's VPN service and their webmail server?
Given that you reference "same IP address" do you know if the VPN connection is configured via a fixed IP address or by a URL?  If URL can you please try pinging the URL to confirm that you get a correct DNS resolution to the IP address you reference.
Also check PN fire wall settings (you will need to logon to the portal) and confirm that the PN firewall settings are LOW or OFF as these are the only two settings which permit VPN operation.  NOTE: You will need to drop your existing BB connection for any changes made there to become effective.
HTH, if not then the problem could be in the traffic management department!
Cheers,
Kevin

[#3]

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the prompt reply.
The VPN IP address is the same as the IP address used for the mail servers.
The DNS resolves the name for both but the error in browser returns is a normal time out error when failing to access a site that is down.
Which in our case it is not and works elsewhere.
I have tried both  firewall settings to LOW and OFF. Both with no change.
The VPN hangs on the mini-port screen. Eventually times out with a remote server error if running
Although I have asked our IT support company to keep checking during the day if there were any changes since I called the plusnet support, updated the logs and posted this and the VPN and mail access is now working!!
There is no notification from plusnet on my logs that they have found an error or changed a setting.
There has been no changes to the router and as far as i am aware no change to the server
But it is working; i would rather know why - just in case it happens again.
Also the whole login VPN process it much quicker to login than I have ever seen!
Thanks again for taking to time to reply.
Paul

[#4]

I have had the exact same problem. It affected me from Friday 21st to Monday 24th Feb, then it was ok for a bit.  Today it has come back - my vpn connection is established for a few seconds then is dropped.  I am on a mac os x machine. I rebuilt it over that weekend, and before I did the Mavericks upgrade it worked fine.  Once Mavericks was installed it was back to square one again.  Again - no-one else is having this problem, seems to be Mavericks+Plusnet issue for me. Are you also on mac os?  There is a well-known Mavericks vpn issue for L2TP connections, but this is over PPTP.

[#5]

For anyone else suffering - there is a mac os upgrade from Apple (10.9.2) which appears to have fixed the issue I was seeing.
Mentioned here:

Quote from: PlusComUK

OSX 10.9.2 update released today 25th February 2014 Available through Software Update, App Store, and macupdate https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/48498/os-x-mavericks/10.9.2/1393356711?utm_source=feedburner&utm_m... What's New Version 10.9.2: