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Aren't latency times over satellite too high to allow a VPN to be useful anyway?

That said, we'll need more information about what sort of VPN you're using and the equipment on either end.

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What you say you want to do is 100% do-able. Latency is not an issue.

However

That doesn't mean that you can do it - it is possible (but unlikely) that some of the components are crippled (most probably the satellite connection may be filtered).

It's also possible that this isn't a true satellite modem. One approach to satellite is a true bi-directional ground-space connection - the other is to have a 'slow' ground to ground connection for data flowing from you to the internet (ie page GETs) and then a clever bit of s/w on the PC that looks for HTTP responses on the asynchronous satellite connection (ever seen web connections served by DVB-S satellites?).

Assuming it's a bidirectional connection. the most obvious first:
you need to look at your PC firewall to ensure the vpn client can penetrate it.
You need to make sure your VPN is trying to connect via ethernet.
Can you ping your VPN (far) endpoint?

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Have you tried calling the satellite company and saying that you're having trouble with VPN connections after the upgrade?

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I have my home network bridged so other PC's at home can connect to the web.

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I have my home network bridged so other PC's at home can connect to the web.

The way you put it, it sounds like you're using the Windows Connection Sharing thing. If so, which computer are you trying to connect from? The one that's connected directly to the modem or one that's connected to the sharing computer?

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Here’s my ipconfig for that connection. The PC also has a Token Ring card connected to another old PC and another Ethernet port not used at the moment. I also have another PC on the below Ethernet network. That’s why its bridged.

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I suggest you simplify things until you get your VPN up and running.

Remove the second ethernet card from the master PC, leaving only the one connected to the modem. Multi-homed machine troubleshooting (i.e. a machine bridging networks) is a bear.

Try to get the VPN client working in this configuration. If you can, then you'll know the issue is in the routing.


-Zeke

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Basically, your modem has a static IP. Your PC has a "private" IP address that is translated to that static IP by your router. This is probably where your problem is. Can you at least see the options in your VPN client? Which is it set to?

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Weird. That should be the absolutely most stable option.

You say they won't change anything for you, but will they help you troubleshoot at all? It might be helpful to see if they're getting any errors on their side.

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[deadpan] It would probably help a lot if you could set up VPN access so that Bitt could tunnel in and play with the settings [/deadpan].

I'm sure getting into my PC will be much easier than me getting out.

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[deadpan] It would probably help a lot if you could set up VPN access so that Bitt could tunnel in and play with the settings [/deadpan].

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More info

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Your main computer is functioning as a router. That's what "Internet Connection Sharing" does.

Can you run through their steps and find if you fall under "Static IP and DHCP disabled" or "Static IP and DHCP enabled", please?

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What I would do at this point is reconfigure the networking on your main PC so that the IP address of the interface connected to the modem is 67.45.30.126 (yes, 126), with a netmask of 255.255.255.252. (You might also have to set your DNS servers to 66.82.4.8 & 66.82.4.12.) Write down how it's configured before you change it so that you can change it back.

WARNING: If what I'm thinking is correct, this means your PC will be directly connected to the internet and accessible by anyone, which is bad, since you're running Windows. I'd leave it set up like this for as short a time as possible. Also turn on the firewall option in your network settings if it isn't already set that way.

Once you have it set up like that, make sure you can access web sites. If you can, try your VPN client again.

Then let us know. You might want to go ahead and reset your network settings.

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What I would do at this point is reconfigure the networking on your main PC so that the IP address of the interface connected to the modem is 67.45.30.126 (yes, 126), with a netmask of 255.255.255.252. (You might also have to set your DNS servers to 66.82.4.8 & 66.82.4.12.) Write down how it's configured before you change it so that you can change it back.

WARNING: If what I'm thinking is correct, this means your PC will be directly connected to the internet and accessible by anyone, which is bad, since you're running Windows. I'd leave it set up like this for as short a time as possible. Also turn on the firewall option in your network settings if it isn't already set that way.

Once you have it set up like that, make sure you can access web sites. If you can, try your VPN client again.

Then let us know. You might want to go ahead and reset your network settings.

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Just a shot in the dark, but when I was on StarBand, everything ran through a Internet Accelerator proxy. I had to disable the proxy to do things like VPN. Is there anything like that going on?

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I think now I just need someone to change my Cisco VPN Client to use IP over UDP instead of IP over TCP.

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I think now I just need someone to change my Cisco VPN Client to use IP over UDP instead of IP over TCP.

Hmm. Read that link. They have a potential point about the latency, but that's kinda odd. Still, it could be the issue.

However, if it is, you're probably wasting your money with the static IP (unless it's free). If you can get the VPN changed from TCP to UDP and it works, I'd try it with your old network configuration, too, and, if it works there, get rid of the extra static IP expense.

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In that thread you linked to, the person said that the Hughes techs were idiots. Basically, before you purchased the static IP, your modem had a randomly assigned IP address, your computer had a private address, and the modem translated your private IP address to its random public one. Once you purchased the static IP, you got one that you could configure on your PC, but the techs didn't tell you that, so you still had the private IP assigned, and the modem continued to translate your private IP to some random one.

However, none of that should really have a huge bearing on your VPN access, since you have "NAT Traversal" turned on in the VPN client. I could go into why that makes a difference, but neither you nor anyone else cares.

What I'm getting at is that I doubt that there's a difference between you having purchased a static IP and not using it, like you were doing until you changed your PC's network configuration, and not having a static IP at all. So, if I were you, now that you have the VPN working, is reconfigure your PC to use the private address, and then test your VPN client again. If it still works, drop the static IP service. If not, keep it. There is the possibility that there is a difference between the two states, so it's vaguely possible that you'll drop the static IP and the VPN will stop working, but I doubt it. If so, though, you can always have them give you that service again.

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Since I have an IP for my PC that is known on the internet maybe I could setup a web server or VNC into my PC from the web, couldn't I?