VPN issues

[#1]

Dear team

Please can you help.  I started working remotely approx 10 months ago and have been suffering from various IT issues since which i cannot replicate in the office.  This started with an issue i had opening certain excel docs in Sharepoint, where i would click on them but they wouldn't open and i would receive an error message. - although to my colleagues, it would look as though i had the document open.   Now i'm suffering from  have another problem, this time with Outlook.  Sometime it takes numerous attempts just to open Outlook, then when i'm in, i get a lot of crashing (not responding) especially when navigating in shared mailboxes, and in particlular, i can't open or forward emails with attachments of more than roughly 500KB.  When i switch to tethering off my phone 4G, it works fine, then i switch back to my wifi and the issues return.  I've also tried on other networks at friends etc and all works ok so I now realise that the issues are with my ISP.

I read a thread earlier suggesting turning the router off for 10 mins and back on again to change the IP.  I had an ISP before beginning with 109, its now xhanged to 146 - another problematic one i believe and the issue remains.  Can you help please.

I'm now out of contract and don't particularly want to leave but will have no choice if this can't be fixed.

[#2]

Hi there,

I'm sorry to see you're having issues with your VPN. I'd recommend having a read of this post you may need to get in touch with your work's IT department.

Let us know how you get on. 

[#3]

Thanks Gandalf.

I'll go back to them with the questions in the post and let you know

Can you confirm you've checked my line just to rule that out?  I had someone try to connect their phone to my wifi the other day and got an error message to say the connection was unstable.

[#4]

Hi @womble5

Line looks absolutely perfect from this side - you're in sync at 40mb/s with no external issues.

Best wishes

Dave

[#5]

Thanks - see below response from my IT team.  Thought i had posted this 2 weeks ago but seems it didn't work. Grateful if you can look into this asap.

• Whether or not there is a clear routing path between the client and the VPN endpoint. If the routing is broken, traffic cannot get to the endpoint to establish the tunnel.
  +++Routing wouldn't be an issue here as tunnel establishes without interruptions, the problem is that it's getting dropped and user can't send bigger files via email while having at least 25Mbps
  • How the endpoint treats the traffic once it gets to it i.e. does it consider certain IP ranges to be outside of the UK and refuse connection attempts?
  +++ After VPN is established endpoint has 2 default routes with metric preference to VPN gateway,
  
  In order to establish which of the above we're looking at, the first port of call is normally to ask the administrator of the VPN endpoint to check their logs and confirm:-
  +++ logs are in 'event viewer' =>custom view=>cisco=>cisco anyconnect secure mobility client
  • Whether or not traffic from your IP address is hitting their server.
  +++ this is slowness problem so yes, endpoint can reach the server, but it is slower than expected
  • Assuming it is, what else do the logs contain?
  -can I have the logs from:
  +++ I don't think we can give the logs but you can ask what information they need from the logs and we're happy to provide.
  It can also sometimes help to provide a (preferably UDP) traceroute to the IP address of the VPN endpoint from the Plusnet connection.
  +++We can provide only ICMP traceroute, while user is using VPN you can do cmd and 'traceroute x.x.x.x (IP of Plusnet local connection)

[#6]

Thanks for the info @womble5 

Let me look into this further when I'm in the office tomorrow. In the meantime could you run a traceroute when you're using the VPN?

[#7]

Morning @womble5 

I've added a static IP to your account to try to diagnose this issue. Could you retest your VPN letting me know how it goes? If you have the same issues I'd recommend next doing a factory reset of your router by pushing a paperclip into the reset pin hole at the back for 20 seconds (you'll need to re-do any manual config you've done afterwards though)

[#8]

Hi Gandalf

Doesn't seem to be any different. Issues still occuring.  Tried the router reset but no difference.   How do i run a traceroute?

[#9]

Hi @womble5 Sorry for the delay and it's disappointing that's not worked. Seems to rule out an IP issue then. To run a traceroute you'd need to open up the Command Prompt and type 'tracert' then the IP address of the VPN endpoint. 

You should be able to find the command prompt by typing 'cmd' into the Windows search bar. 

Best to run the traceroute while you're experiencing the problem. 

Let me know how it goes.

[#10]

Hi @womble5 I'm just following up to see how you're getting on with this. 

Are you still experiencing problems connecting to your VPN?

[#11]

Hi Gandalf

I've been on holiday so haven't had a chance to test it until now.  Can you advise please how i find out the IP address of the VPN endpoint that i need to run the traceroute.  I use Cisco AnyConnect.   This is what my IT team advised:

+++We can provide only ICMP traceroute, while user is using VPN you can do cmd and 'traceroute x.x.x.x (IP of Plusnet local connection).

Can you also advise regarding port clamping?  I'm sure i read somewhere that enabling port clamping could be a potential fix but i can't log into my router to check this.  

Thanks

[#12]

Thanks for getting back to me @womble5 

No problem, I hope you had a good time away. I'd imagine the endpoint IP is within the VPN's settings or your IT department at work should be able to advise at least.

To enable port clamping, log in to your router settings at http://192.168.1.254, go to Advanced Settings > Broadband > VPN

If you're still having issues after that, to try to do a bit more troubleshooting/process of elimination to get to the bottom of this, we've not yet ruled out the router as faulty, so it may be worth trying another one if you can.

The router we've sent isn't under warranty as it's a couple of years old, but we'd be happy to send you a new router as part of a new contract and likely a cheaper deal too if you call our customer options team on 0800 013 2632.

There are other options though to get a new router, buying a 3rd party one and setting it up using the details found Here.

Either way let me know how you get on.

[#13]

Thanks Gandalf, the port clamping didn't work.  Can you advise please regarding my earlier question about traceroute?

[#14]

in addition, can you advise if my old Plusnet router would still work?  I tried setting it up but the broadband light just kept flashing although i didn't change any settings.  Obviously i'm not keen on tying myself into a new contract if the problem persists with the new router.

[#15]

Unfortunately I wouldn't know what your IT department are referring to. It could be the IP address of your connection (Found out by going to whatismyip.com) or it could be the IP of your local devices (Found out by logging into your router).

With regards to your previous router, if you're referring to the Hub Zero this will work with fibre but you'll need a fibre modem behind it and you'll also need to change the config in the router settings from ADSL to Fibre.