Level 2

284 points

VPN PPTP Connects but doesn't work

I used to use the built in PPTP VPN connection in the regular Leopard to connect to my employer just fine. It allowed access to the exchange server, intranet web pages, and file servers. Now with the same connection settings I can connect and authenticate just fine but it's as if none of the network requests are going through the VPN. None of the addresses resolve, for file servers, web servers or exchange. I even tried IP addresses and they weren't found either. Watching the VPN traffic meters in the control panel revealed no activity even though various network request were being made.

I tried manually adding DNS info into the VPN settings to no avail. I deleted all DNS info and let it populate itself and no luck. I have an old G5 sitting here with regular Leopard and the VPN connection works just fine.

I've tried deleting the VPN and re-adding and that didn't work either.

This is making me really nervous... I NEED my VPN. Please help 😟

MacBook Pro 17", Mac OS X (10.6), VPN PPTP

Posted on Aug 29, 2009 12:53 AM

79 replies

Sep 18, 2009 8:12 AM in response to Paul Bush

I've still got no joy. VPN connects, send a receive bars light up, so i'm in. I see an IP address. I deleted the plist as described, checked/unchecked the internet sharing, and checked that all traffic is routed through the vpn. Nada. Thing is, watching the traffic meter looks like activity going back and forth, but still nothing. anyone else still having troubles? I'm using 10.6.1 and PPTP protocol.
TIA

Rob

direwolf8

Level 4

1,286 points

Sep 18, 2009 8:55 AM in response to Stain Boy

That's the correct solution when Split Tunnel isn't set up on the other end.

BentR

Level 1

8 points

Sep 21, 2009 10:28 AM in response to Neflyte

Hi Neflyte

I'm new to Mac 🙂 (no more windows - allmost) so can you tell me more here? How do I delete the /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration?

Hope you can help

Regards,

BentR

Sep 21, 2009 12:21 PM in response to bob_walker99

Enabling internet connection sharing, waiting a bit, then disabling it also worked for me.

-Tim

Sep 21, 2009 8:38 PM in response to Paul Bush

Wanted to add that the "internet-sharing" fix worked for me, and I have VMWare installed.

Volkan_B

Level 1

0 points

Sep 22, 2009 3:57 PM in response to Paul Bush

Install digitunnel and in preferences, tick the box header compression. this solved the problem completely for me!

i've installed the demo that will work for a month, so not a permanent solution but it'll get VPN working for now untill Apple hopefully fixes the problem.

Oct 4, 2009 11:25 PM in response to Paul Bush

I had this problem and solved it by just moving the VPN connection to the top of my list of network connections.

Steps:
- Initial state: Can connect to vpn and use ip addresses to access things but dns does not work
- Go to System Preferences -> Network
- Click the little settings icon below the list of networks and choose "Set Service Order"
- Drag the VPN connection (which was at the bottom for me) up to the top
- Now connect
- Final state: Can now use dns

I'm running Snow Leopard (10.6.1) on a 2009 mini

Cheers,
Chris

Oct 4, 2009 11:29 PM in response to TinyGrasshopper

Note that for me in the main network settings panel, the vpn now shows up second from the top (behind airport) when it's disconnected and at the top (in front of airport) when it's disconnected.

I'm guessing that what's happend is that before it was asking my isp's dns server first for the ip for computers on the vpn network and it was returning a definitive answer that that ip doesn't exist.

Now it asks my VPN's dns first and if it cant find it there then it asks my ISP.

Lolo61

Level 1

0 points

Oct 7, 2009 12:55 PM in response to Paul Bush

I had the same issue. I tried every solution in this forum. Nothing worked. But I got an idea by reading all the "solutions": It's just a routing problem!

For me, Parallels Desktop was the problem. All routes leaded to their virtual network cards. I never used them! I just deactivated them and then, which I think is very important, brought the network connections into the right order (in my case: Airport, VPN and then the rest). Rebooting is also important, and now: Everything works fine! I'm in my company's network and also can use the Internet as usual.

Hope that helps.

gz
Holger

skington

Level 1

0 points

Oct 13, 2009 4:51 AM in response to TinyGrasshopper

Ahah! Just wanted to confirm that re-ordering the VPN connection is indeed the fix (or was for me anyway). I'd noticed that the VPN was no longer on the top after upgrading to Snow Leopard, but hadn't realised you could re-arrange it (tried to drag the interfaces in the normal view and failed, didn't spot the options menu).

Oct 13, 2009 8:39 AM in response to skington

Hello. Tried ALL ! solutions in this thread but doesn't work for me. I had a working PPTP VPN before upgrading to 10.6 but now it just crashes whe I try to send data. I can successfully connect through a virtual XP-machine but I really like to have OSX client running. I have another L2TP VPN running fine but PPTP crashes. Thanks a lot for more suggestions!

Oct 22, 2009 9:50 AM in response to Paul Bush

Hi

I figured on my machine it was that for some stupid reasons I don't know why "Back-to-my-mac" was enabled. This basically "corrupted" the whole NATing process and I could not access anything on VPN, even though I could connect.

Disabling Back-to-my-Mac solved the issue immediately.

I figured this one out by trying to install the original Cisco client which gave me this message that Back-to-my-Mac was still enabled

hope it helps for some of you guys

Michael

Nov 30, 2009 9:35 PM in response to Paul Bush

+3 on the "disable internet sharing solution"

Dec 1, 2009 1:08 PM in response to Paul Bush

It's finally working again!

Unfortunately I cannot say which of the two tricks did: enabled and disable InternetSharing or the reordering of the network connections...

Dec 19, 2009 6:53 AM in response to Paul Bush

Deleting all of the files in the "/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration" and then rebooting seemed to work for me.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

VPN PPTP Connects but doesn't work