So, I needed a basic VPN solution and went and bought a TrendNet TW100-BVR304 which I thought would solve my problems, but wasn't completely sure. I've also tried the 204 variety, with identical results. To be clear, it's for deploying in an office where I don't want to have to maintain a linux computer.

Configuring the "microsoft vpn" section for PPTP connections is as easy as could be. Turn it on, add an account, and that's about it. So I try connecting from my powerbook, and no dice at all. I assume the cheap router is at fault, but try it from the XP Pro computer, and it works perfectly.

The "Internet Connect" program is used for configuring VPNs, and its log is full of the following error messages:
Code:

---

Tue Jan 24 00:52:47 2006 : PPTP connecting to server '192.168.1.102' (192.168.1.102)...
Tue Jan 24 00:52:47 2006 : PPTP start_connection_control request failed, got result = 0, error = 0

---

The text of which shows up in a few foreign language forums, and in the source code to Darwin's pptp.c.

The error message reads:
"The connection to the remote server has failed. Please verify the server address and try again."

I can't seem to get it to tell me why it's unhappy. If I point it at another address, it'll time out in a minute or two as expected.

Anyone have any sugestions? I assumed the OSX PPTP vpn client would be compatible with microsofts, but that doesn't seem to be the case. This is keeping me from playing with my two new empegs that joined the family today, so I'd really like to get it figured out.

I really like these little boxes, they're cheap and the vpn endpoint functionality would be a welcome addition to any NATed network.

Matthew

Well, since PPTP is a Microsoft-developed (and virtually Microsoft-only, since its security is terrible) protocol, that's not really that funny a notion.

That said, I don't have any help. Try using a real VPN protocol if you can.

Hmmm. It does IPSec, but it seemed that that was more aimed at network-to-network vpns. I guess I'll have to give that a try.

The level of security isn't too important - it's not protecting anything that anyone would want to get at, I just want to keep troublemakers out.

All the end users are on windows as far as I know, but I like to support macs if at all possible.

Matthew

IPSec does network-to-network as well as individual-to-network. (Of course, I suppose it's possible, if unlikely, that your VPN appliance only supports one of them.) My guess is that while it's a little more trouble to set up, IPSec will do a better job in the long run than PPTP. Especially if you can't get the PPTP to work.

Yeah. I'll give it a shot tonight. I've got to give instructions out to people who have no technical knowledge and get them connected and remote desktoped into a server. The PPTP solution works so simply with XP I'll probably stick with it for XP. I'd just rather stick with one thing instead of two different systems for different operating systems.

I suppose I can look into how dificult XP's IPSec setup is. I have this nagging feeling it only comes with Professional and not Home, which might be an issue.

Matthew

According to MS, IPSec is built into 2000 and XP, and can be downloaded for 98/ME. Nothing about it being exclusive to XP Pro.

If your VPN hardware is using poptop (or something similar) you have to make a change to an OS X config file to get it to connect (change not necessary when connect to a MS server). Take a look at steps 11 - 23 of this which was the first reference I could find for it.

-Mike

Huh. That didn't seem to have any effect. I need to try this from a different mac and see if it's just a problem with my powerbook. I'll haul the thing into work tomorrow and hook it up.

I started working on IPSec last night, and it didn't work on my seccond or third tries. I'll give it some more time, but I'm not holding out hope. Worse case scenario is that we just don't support macs on the VPN. Or we support macs by buying some more of these $60 routers.

Matthew