IPSec VPN connects then disconnects

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Level 1

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IPSec VPN connects then disconnects

I've got a 3g iPhone and I'm trying to set connect to a IPSec VPN. I've got a group name and secret as well as an account name and password. When I connect everything looks like it works (no error messages) and it says "connected" in the status area.

But then about 1 second later it goes back to disconnected and the VPN "switch" turns off. There are no error messages and no indication of anything going wrong.

What is it doing? Is there a log I can read somewhere?

iPhone 3g

Posted on Jul 14, 2008 2:43 AM

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Answer 1

LenH

Level 2

395 points

Jul 14, 2008 7:44 AM in response to __david__

Are you doing this via 3G or via Wi-Fi?

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Answer 2

__david__ Author

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Jul 14, 2008 11:53 AM in response to LenH

It does the same thing with both 3G and WiFi.

The cisco VPN software on the mac works just fine with the same settings.

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Answer 3

LenH

Level 2

395 points

Jul 14, 2008 1:26 PM in response to __david__

It could be the case that the admin of the ASA or PIX has added a configuration setting that is looking for a certain VPN client version and/or OS and the iPhone needs to be added to that list.

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Answer 4

jbnetdog

Level 1

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Jul 16, 2008 8:44 AM in response to LenH

Yeah that is what we are seeing on our ASA. When trying to connect to the ASA with the IPSEC client we see "client type not supported". We can change this on the ASA, but we need to know the version and type of the iPhone IPSEC client.

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Answer 5

jbnetdog

Level 1

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Jul 16, 2008 9:59 AM in response to jbnetdog

Okay, I'll answer my own question. On the ASA, using the ASDM, we edited the dftgrpolicy and added another client type to the permitted clients list. For the client type of iPhone OS, and version. works pretty slick...

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Answer 6

Jul 22, 2008 12:00 PM in response to jbnetdog

Hi,
Just posted in another thread before reading through all threads (tsk tsk) with a problem that I think is identical to david's issues. The only difference is that I authenticate using only RSA SecurID with no user name and password (on my Mac Cisco client).

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1599227&tstart=0

I'm hoping that jbnetdog's solution will also work for me. Just one question to jbnetdog: what should the client type be for a 1st gen iPhone upgraded to 2.0 using Cisco IPSec? Haven't been able to find this...

Cheers,

Frederik

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Answer 7

Duke_fsc

Level 1

10 points

Jul 27, 2008 3:40 AM in response to __david__

I had got the same problem. I had get my old 1G iPhone save in my fresh new 3G iPhone. All working well except VPN which did the same as you.

Reseting network settings to default did nothing.

So I did a full restore of my phone and DID NOT GET my save back from iTunes. Just synchronized and had to custom settings from scratch.

This solved this issue. I think it was a corrupt config.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 8

__david__ Author

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Jul 29, 2008 10:44 AM in response to __david__

Thanks for all your replies.

It turned out that the VPN server was set up to do DES, not 3DES and the iPhone only supports 3DES and AES (2 variants). The only way to determine the error was to get to the server logs, which is why it took so long to figure out. I think the iPhone should report errors instead of mysteriously dropping the connection...

The administrator flipped the bit to use 3DES and the iPhone connected right up. Yay!

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Answer 9

Sep 11, 2008 10:24 AM in response to FrederikZ

just to let you people know that VPN is now working flawlessly on my 1st gen. iPhone with 2.0.2. All that was needed was to add the iPhone to the list of permitted devices as suggested by jbnetdog.

just to correct my previous post: I do have to enter username (DOMAIN\user) followed by the pin+token code.

Thanks!

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