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FiOS w/Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client

I am running Windows 64-bit on a lenovo laptop, connecting to my employer's VPN via Cisco AnyConnect. Frequently - at least once a day, it seems - the AnyConnect application will reconnect. This doesn't present a problem except with those pieces of the corporate environment most important to me - my IP Communicator soft phone and the internal drive mappings.

I have been working with our internal IT department to see if there is some problem with my laptop or the AnyConnect application, but I have been working in the technology field long enough to know that, at some point, the question is going to be raised about my Internet connection.

I am interested in hearing if anyone else uses AnyConnect with FiOS and whether you experience the same reconnection problem.

TIA

Comments

lasagna

Yes, I use it. No, I've not had any connectivity issues -- mine stays up for the entire day when I'm working from home.

-jk

smith6612

I use Cisco AnyConnect here at home, but on Verizon's DSL product with an ActionTec MI424WR Rev. D running DD-WRT. I don't see any drops. The key things to check here would be any special transversal mode in the ActionTec (such as IPSec ALG, which AnyConnect shouldn't need as I believe it defaults to SSL), the ActionTec's Firewall even if it's set to Low Security, and of course if you're using Wireless, ruling out any momentary drop in the wireless connection that doesn't visibally show itself.

It may even be worthwhile if your company allows ICMP traffic to their VPN Gateway to try running a traceroute to the gateway if you can get the gateway's hostname or IP address. It may be worthwhile running a traceroute or two to see if loss persists especially if the drops occur during specific times of the day or evening.

amr61266

I am having exactly the same issue with my FIOS while running my Cisco AnyConnect VPN client. Like the OP, I have intermittent drops of the VPN. During the reconnect process, I lose my VNC connection, my Outlook enterprise connection and my IP soft phone. Some days are worse than others -- 5 days ago it was happening every 30-45 minutes for the entire day. So far today it has happened only once.

My first thought was it is a VPN problem so I opened a ticket with my IT department. They ran some tests and here is their response:

==========================

I looked through the logs and it appears the VPN tunnel is getting interrupted by a flaky Internet connection or congestion of some sort. The client sends out Dead Peer Detection packets to the head end that never seem to get there so the client never sees a response back from the VPN gateway. This causes the client to tear down the tunnel and reestablish the service. During all this the client sends a close message and starts building a new tunnel, this happens within .03 seconds. So in short the client is doing everything it can to keep the tunnel alive, it’s just that the packets don’t get here. The outages look fairly brief but I do see drops even during the time it’s trying to reestablish.

Right now I’d suggest that you check with your service provider and hopefully they can find something. It’s also a possibility that your home router could be the issue.

===========================

I have the Verizon 9100EM router. I have tried rebooting it but that did not help. I also tried changing from using the wireless to a wired connection, but that did not help either. I have downloaded the Vz In-Home Agent and ran the optimization setup but still no luck. I am not sure what else to try. Any ideas would be appreciated.

dbbyleo

I was issues at my in-laws. I'm working remotely for 2 weeks and realized I have intermitent issues connecting to my company's intranet via VPN. We use Juniper Network Connect.

My in-laws have Verizon Fios using the ActionNet MI424WR modem/router.

When I'm connected on the VPN, my connection to work is awful. Remote Desktop session continually hang off an on. The same thing goes for SSH session. Connection to exchange is also slow/awful.

I finally went to my in-laws business office. And over there, I have no problem at all. So I thought it must the Fios or the modem/router. That's when I found this thread.

Anyway, this thread or any like it didn't help. As far as I can tell the router was still in it's default setting, except the admin password was no longer the same. And my in-laws didn't know or can't remember the password.

So I resetted the modem to factory setting. And viola! My VPN connection problems went away. I can't be sure if there was or wasn't something previous configured that caused the problem. But if you're having issues... it may be worth your while to try resetting the router... or just power cycling it.

viafax999

@OldGnome wrote:

I am interested in hearing if anyone else uses AnyConnect with FiOS and whether you experience the same reconnection problem.
TIA

I work from home all the time and use AnyConnect VPN. Hold a vpn sesssion open 7/24 with an RDP session open to an inetrnal desktop. See frequent notifications of vpn reconnection however the rdp session appears to handle it with no issues most of the time - sometimes see reconnecting notifications on the rdp session which it normally appears to handle. The VPN session itself apparently is disconnection but successfully reconnects. Several months back had issues where the vpn session itself was disconnecting but I always assume that was our internal infrastructure. Think my crumby Westell router has not been reooted or repowered in 10 months.

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