iPhone 3G 3.0 Tethering and Cisco VPN

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iPhone 3G 3.0 Tethering and Cisco VPN

Hi,

So far i have been able to successfully tether my devices to browse on my Macbook Pro. VPN however doesnt seem to work through tethering (either BT or USB).

If i enable VPN on the iPhone i can successfully visit my work intranet, sharepoint etc on the iphone, but when tethered to the Mac i cannot visit the sites on the Mac. Futhermore, i cannot run the Cisco VPN Client, it doesn't want to load, telling me this:

"Error 51: Unable to communicate with the VPN subsystem.+
Please make sure that you have at least one network interface that is cuurently active and has an ip address and start this application again."

It looks like the network interface is not being detected??

Has anyone else been able to VPN through tethering??

15" Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Jun 20, 2009 3:42 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 23, 2009 4:19 PM in response to edy80y

As curious about this as you - my 3GS just arrived today, pretty much on the understanding that VPN while tethered worked. So far, no luck.

If you tether then try the VPN client, do you get the same error message? I don't - you can run the Cisco VPN client, establish a connection, but you can't connect to any LAN resources or browse the web.

Odd that you can successfully run the VPN client and connect, but not do anything.

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Answer 2

Jun 23, 2009 4:41 PM in response to Derek Cooper2

Hey, this is fun answering my own post - just got off the phone with Apple. VPN and Tethering isn't supported by the device. You can VPN from the iPhone, or Tether to your laptop, but not both simultaneously.

Guess my sales rep was mis-informed and will have to return the 3GS. Sad.

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Answer 3

Jun 25, 2009 4:08 AM in response to Derek Cooper2

I, too, have been trying to get this to work, but no luck. My VPN connects and stays up for a few seconds, but then drops. I've tried it with SSL, a smaller MTU, but nothing works. I wonder if it's a carrier issue or if the iPhone, itself, blocks IPSec packets. This really would be a killer app for me if it worked. Bummer.

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Answer 4

Jun 25, 2009 4:26 AM in response to Opinionizer

Time to retract my last statement. I saw a post on a forum that suggested trying tethering with bluetooth instead of USB. It works! I don't know if this will work for everyone, but, for some unknown (to me, at least) reason, VPN with tethering works just fine if you do it over the bluetooth connection. Go figure!

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Answer 5

Jun 25, 2009 5:38 AM in response to Opinionizer

That is bizarre.

We did get it working - see this post.

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Answer 6

Jun 25, 2009 8:10 PM in response to edy80y

I have tethering working on my iPhone, and I can connect to a VPN at the same time. I'm pretty sure this works because when I'm connected to both, and I go to ipchicken.com from the laptop, my information is as if I'm connected from home (my VPN).

I'm on OS X and I just access the VPN from the network settings that I configured.

Thoughts?

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Answer 7

Jun 26, 2009 5:16 AM in response to ksumarine

Sounds find Ksumarine. The key to determining whether or not it is working is to connect to a LAN-side resource, like another computer.

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Answer 8

Jun 26, 2009 12:04 PM in response to Derek Cooper2

I did it, I can successfully connect to the VPN server and see all the files I have available as if I were at home on my network 🙂

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Answer 9

Darkker

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Aug 26, 2009 3:39 AM in response to Opinionizer

Not for me. It's not working with bluetooth nor USB. The Cisco VPN Client wont start. It shows error 51. Internet connection works.

I have the same problem as described in the first post. iPhone 3G S 3.0.1, mbp os x 10.5.8, Cisco Systems VPN Client 4.9.01 (0100). I get public IP address on my iPhone but mac gets 192.168.20.2.

Any ideas? I just configured bluetooth tethering by selecting from bt menu "set up bluetooth device" and after the configuration connected from the bt menu "connect to network."

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Answer 10

jonwchgo

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Sep 4, 2009 6:19 AM in response to Darkker

perhaps iphone 3.0.1 had a regression that broke this for bluetooth?

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Answer 11

mzbda

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Nov 23, 2009 12:24 AM in response to Opinionizer

If you are have parallels installed, the Cisco VPN might switch to one of the parallels IP addresses a few seconds after connecting. The IP change will break the tunnel.

Try this before starting the VPN client:

sudo /Library/Parallels/Parallels\ Service.app/Contents/Resources/ParallelsDispatcherService stop

If I stop the parallels dispatcher first, I can VPN whether tethered with bluetooth or USB.

An alternative may be to disassociate your Bluetooth PAN and iPhone adapters from Parallels.

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Answer 12

Dec 9, 2009 2:46 AM in response to mzbda

Thx mzbda! After I Stopped the ParallelsDispatcherService I can use my windows-based VPN connection by iPhone's Internet Tethering connection (over bluetooth).

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Answer 13

Dec 10, 2009 7:27 PM in response to edy80y

It IS possible to connect to a VPN while tethering, as long as you start the VPN connection from the computer, not the iPhone.

If you connect to the VPN from the iPhone while tethering the iPhone's data traffic will go through the VPN but the tethering part will remain through the 3G network.

I have tested this with OpenVPN, Cisco and L2TP VPNs from the computer. Cisco and L2TP VPNs from the iPhone. Unfortunately my mobile carrier blocks non-corporate lines from PPTP VPNs so I can't test it.

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