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[mgerics]

Lo, all. Been recently laid off, but told work to call me in need be, so I still have access to the system.

I have tried to set up Watchguard's VPN with a dial up on a WinME (I know, yuck!) Trouble - after the install, any attempt to get to the internet does actually initiate the dial up, but absolutley NOTHING internet related works; uninstall VPN, and everything is hunky-dory (sp?)

So, what do I need to do? WG website help is sort of yucky.

Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks.

[Ilwrath]

Lo, all. Been recently laid off[...]

Sorry to hear it, man. Been there semi-recently, myself. Not fun, at all.

I have tried to set up Watchguard's VPN with a dial up on a WinME (I know, yuck!)

You, sir, are a braver man than I.

Trouble - after the install, any attempt to get to the internet does actually initiate the dial up, but absolutley NOTHING internet related works; uninstall VPN, and everything is hunky-dory (sp?)

Sounds like the VPN path was configured to be the primary path (always use VPN), instead of an on-demand type thing. In other words, it might have been trying to route all your traffic through the company's network, hence your lack of connectivity.

Now, I haven't used Watchguard, but I've configured the Cisco VPN client on Win98, 2k, and XP. There are three ways you can configure it. I imagine most VPN clients are similar.

* VPN On Demand - only use VPN settings when user requests. This was how I always configured my systems. Basically you'd be on your network (ISP resources) until you started and connected the VPN client, then you'd be on the company network, and see everything as if you were sitting plugged in at the company. (DNS, routing, etc. all change)

* VPN Always - On the company network, starting from the point the physical connection (dial-up, dsl, frame, whatever) is established. This option is more for remote servers and things - not really good for end users, as they probably don't want to use company systems all the time, and may not have access to, even if they DID want to.

* Split Routing - Never got this to work right, and it's kind of a security headache, anyhow. The general idea is that the user uses the ISP resources by default, but also has VPN resources available, mostly transparently.

So, what do I need to do?

Well, I'm not quite sure how far you got into the configuration of things. With the VPN client installed, were you able to reach the company's VPN router gateway? Did you get the security keys set-up? Do you know what settings you need to be able to access the VPN gateway? I guess you need to ask some more specific questions and give a few more details. I'm not really sure where you're stuck at.

And, unfortunatly, I'd recommend a better connection than dial-up. The latency and low-bandwidth of dial-up combined with the latency and overhead of VPN encryption is not a good combination. It CAN work, but it's painful.

Actually, since you have dial-up, couldn't you just build an old junk 486 into a RAS server, leave it at the company, and just dial into that? ;-) (Of course, that might be a long distance call - I'm not sure how far you live from your work.)

Anyone have any experience with this?

Some. Don't take my word as gospel. I've managed to beat my way through and configure some clients, but I'm far from an expert.

[Manu]

Check your VPN client that it really uses your PPP adapter.
If you have a network card it might (default) try to route the traffic that way instead of your dial-up line.