VPN fine for 9 months, stopped working Jan.

[#1]

@smcc  which company are you trying to connect to via vpn?

[#2]

Co-op Bank

[#3]

IMO the onus is on Co-op to properly fix this guys. I have given it my best shot on numerous occasions, however I've as yet failed to get the necessary departments to cooperate (no pun intended!)

There are challenges due to the financial nature of the business and how locked down employees' machines are. It makes it impossible for us to troubleshoot without assistance.

Everything checks out our side, so thinking is it's something remote side, or something baked into the Mobile Xpress client. If someone manages to talk Co-op into letting them use a more recent build of the client then let me know. I'd be interested to know if it helps.

Other solution is to opt for a static IP as mentioned in preceding posts.

[#4]

The Co-op bank's BT mobile Express software is an old version.  Some of the plusnet dynamic ip addresses are within a range that this version of the software blocks, as these were previously used as internal ip addresses by BT before they bought plusnet.  Co-op bank is unlikely to update this software any time soon as this problem only strikes certain plusnet customers when their allocated dynamic ip address falls within a certain range - surely plusnet could put a fix in place for this issue?  If not, then the £5 for static ip address solves the problem.

[#5]

Thanks for the clear explanation, that makes complete sense. Unless Plusnet are planning a fix for this I think I'll be going for the static ip address - bit annoying but if it's only a fiver it won't break the bank.

[#6]

Given that this issue arises from the coop bank using out of date software (for accessing secure financial business systems would you believe!!)  ... may be they will cough up the £5 for you?

[#7]

Hi @bobpullen,

I am having difficulties connecting to my VPN (strongSwan) from my work laptop, at this stage I'm not entirely sure if it is Plusnet related or just an issue with the laptop or VPN (I've only recently been issued them so can't verify that 'it used to work').

Hope you can help!

[#8]

@vivalavile, are you still having problems?

[#9]

@bobpullen, yes still having issues. Is there any info you need from me to help debug things from your side?

[#10]

Hi Bob,

Just spoke to Tech support on the phone and they can't see any issues on my line.

Switched over to PlusNet yesterday and my VPN was working fine on the BT line, now not working.

Gone through the usual troubleshooting with firewall, etc. Disable all firewalls and attempted Telnet to port 500 but still not working. Can you check my circuit and see if there are any issues?

Thank you

[#11]

Ignore that, I've figured it. Someone else was getting in the way 

[#12]

Hi Bob,

A colleague of mine is experiencing similar issues with his VPN connection whilst working from home with his PlusNet One Hub router. Would it be possible to have a chat to see if there's anything that can be done? I'm posting on behalf of him as I work in the IT Team.