VPN Issues

[kazetsukai]

The Xoom has an excellent VPN feature which I've been testing at work, and it looks like it just refuses to work over 3G. Is Verizon doing something funky here? They're never really clear on what services they block/allow.

When using PPTP over 3G, requests make it to the other end, and a response starts, but then the rest of the data stream stalls. For instance, the <title></title> element content will load, but none of the body content will, for all web pages. 

On WiFi, it works PERFECTLY.

Verizon, are you blocking PPTP traffic? 

[kazetsukai]

UPDATE:

There's no edit function? Oh well. 

I gave Verizon a call, and I've been given the official runaround. Xoom documentation shows that VPN connections are simple and just work. https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/61284

This is a business feature that is critical for many to get work done on a device (I intend to use this as a tool, not a toy), but on 3G you just get truncated data and dropped connections. I wont post my experience on the phone, as it wasn't great. I have been promised a call back and lets just say I'm not crossing my fingers. 

I've found various community documentation which lead to this issue being Verizon firewall related, and I've plead with Verizon reps to look into the firewall as a possible cause... lets just hope they do.

[kazetsukai]

Just got off the phone with an engineer who did a call-back for me. I can see a few rays of light for hope, as I was moved into a new IP block. I just need to verify that the Xoom is taking to these changes.

They've reproduced the issue on their end, hopefully we'll get an answer soon. 

I continue testing....

[jasnmar]

Thanks for following up. It's good to know that they are addressing the problem.
jason

[kazetsukai]

More testing...

I've been cruising at home on WiFi using VPN, no problems.

After closer inspection, it looks like the VPN connection itself is getting killed when traffic flow begins on it, rather than the application underneath the VPN connection. I thought it was odd that applications under VPN would die, but it turns out that the connection is long dead after the first attempt. This isn't just VPN, either. Connections to any port that isn't obviously HTTP or some other common internet protocol are indiscriminately killed.

From my best educated guess, this is some kind of anti-P2P firewall measure and legitimate services need to somehow be whitelisted.

If I had a real problem with this issue, it would be this:

If there are service-discriminating blocks in place, Verizon absolutely refuses to confirm them through documentation. Any such blocks should be very customer facing and well documented so that users can work around them accordingly or at least know what to expect.

A distant second would be the fact that Verizon has publicly advocated Internet Neutrality, and service discrimination is on the absolute opposite end of the spectrum.

[kbroder]

I've got the same set up, and the same results:

vpn over wifi - works

vpn over 3g  - fails

I'm on call with VZW opening a ticket as well.  I was able to walk the support person through the situation to the point she understands.  She also asked several very good questions -I'm impressed.  She did say that from what she understands,  it 'should work' and she verified there is no additional 'business option' to enable VPN service for the XOOM data plan.

She is opening a ticket with engineering and they will cal me back shortly.

[kazetsukai]

Okay, so it is day 3/4 and Verizon still hasn't called me back. They provided a solution - upgrade my account to a business account and pay a one time fee of $500 to "fix" the problem. Sorry- I don't think its reasonable to do this when they absolutely refuse to confirm what exactly the problem is - they're blocking internet traffic.

Would a Verizon resource PLEASE respond to this forum thread? The community needs documentation on this problem and what is really going on. Right now, all I've been given is the runaround with zero accountability, and that is just unacceptable. Verizon needs to confirm what exactly is going on and why so that people hoping to use this for work aren't chasing ghosts trying to "fix" their working VPN configuration.

[jleebiker]

This may not be resolved soon. There's alot of discussion about this on the Motorola Xoom forums. Seems it's just not going to work. Also, Cisco has announced their own tablet running on Droid O/S. What are the chances they are going to make that work exclusively on their device and not others?

Meanwhile, the iPad2 works with VPN and IPSEC connections right out of the box...

[mtidwell]

It's true, I went to a Verizon Wireless store with a tech area and the team there was completely clueless. All they cared about was signing up new customers. The location was in Pineville, NC off of South Blvd and one employee's name was Bryan (completely useless). One employee (Mark) did try however, he took my xoom behind the tech counter and came back informing me that I should try firefox. Like I didn't try every browser before I wasted a Saturday.  I took matters into my  own hand, went to the IPAD2 demo, setup my company's VPN on it and guess what....it brought up my company's site with no lag! What the heck is going on with VZN / Motorola / Google?

Luckily for me, I'm in my 14 day trial period. I'm seriously thinking of just cancelling my line alogether and go to my local Apple Retail store. Their product works and the employees CARE!