VPN PPTP Connects but doesn't work

Question

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

Reply

Answer 1

Neflyte

Level 1

0 points

Aug 29, 2009 4:26 PM in response to Paul Bush

I have the same issue. My routing table looks legit (you can check it by running "netstat -r") but pings and traceroutes go nowhere. Forced DNS lookups against the VPN DNS server fail every time. I'm still researching, but i have no leads. 😟

Reply

Answer 2

Neflyte

Level 1

0 points

Aug 29, 2009 4:58 PM in response to Paul Bush

I've successfully fixed my issue.
All I did was backup and erase the contents of /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration, then after a restart everything worked again.

Reply

Answer 3

Tekay

Level 1

0 points

Aug 29, 2009 10:32 PM in response to Neflyte

Thanks!!!

I had the same issues with my PPTP VPN.
I copied what you did and it is now working properly again.

Thanks again.

Reply

Answer 4

Paul Bush Author

Level 2

284 points

Aug 30, 2009 12:13 AM in response to Neflyte

I tried as you suggested but unfortunately it didn't work for me. I can still connect and authenticate just fine but nothing will resolve, not even IP addresses. Still seems like the connection is there but not even being used.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm glad it worked for you.

Reply

Answer 5

Tekay

Level 1

0 points

Aug 30, 2009 5:38 AM in response to Paul Bush

Sorry to hear.

Are you seeing any activity at all in the VPN traffic meters in the control panel?
I was only seeing the "Sent" bar showing traffic but nothing was shown in "Received". After trashing the preferences and then re-adding my VPN connection it now all works correctly.

Reply

Answer 6

cscade

Level 1

5 points

Aug 31, 2009 12:11 PM in response to Paul Bush

I'd like to throw my hat in the ring as another person for whom the above solution did resolve the issue.

Thanks!

Reply

Answer 7

OBGYNDR

Level 1

6 points

Aug 31, 2009 1:14 PM in response to Paul Bush

Im getting to the authenticate part andhang there. Doesnt go any further. Any suggestions?

Reply

Answer 8

Tim Harris

Level 4

1,481 points

Sep 1, 2009 12:25 AM in response to Paul Bush

OK - this is how you can fix the problem.

make a backup copy of your network id pref list, perhaps using the command line as below from a terminal window.

cp /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.network.idenfication.plist /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.network.idenfication.plist.o ld

open Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.network.idenfication.plist using a TEXT editor or something similar.

Open the network settings screen where your VPN is listed (under System Preferences) and make a note of your VPN settings. Then delete the VPN using the "-" button and click Apply.

In the com.apple.network.idenfication.plist you will see the the defintion for the VPN settings a little like thus:

<dict>
<key>Signatures</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>Identifier</key>
<string>VPN.RemoteAddress=myvpn.domain.com</string>
<key>Services</key>

then lots of settings info, and ending with the definition of a new service

</array>
<key>Signature</key>
<string>VPN.RemoteAddress=myvpn.domain.com</string>
<key>Timestamp</key>
<date>2009-09-01T06:42:53Z</date>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Identifier</key>

Delete everything and including between the <dict> and </dict> for this Identifier and this will remove the VPN settings and leave all the others intact.

Save the file.

Now go back to your network settings screen and re add the you VPN and it will work once again as it did before.

Reply

Answer 9

cpmax

Level 1

14 points

Sep 1, 2009 10:35 AM in response to Tim Harris

I tried this and this didn't solve my issue which is related I think.

I can connect to my PPTP VPN (Clarkconnect) and everything seems to work but then, at what seems to be a random time, the dns drops. I can't resolve anything. Never had this issue with 10.5. I tried this command...

dscacheutil -flushcache

and it seemed to work a few times but it doesn't now. The only way to work around it is to disconnect and reconnect to the VPN.

How do I report this bug?

Message was edited by: cpmax

Reply

Answer 10

Paul Bush Author

Level 2

284 points

Sep 1, 2009 8:44 PM in response to Tim Harris

Since the brute force delete of the entire com.apple.network.identification.plist didn't work I didn't hold out much hope for the editing of the file to work either. I gave it a shot and as I feared, it didn't work. However, I do like the idea of editing the file and leaving my other network settings untouched so thank you for showing me this file.

It still looks like no traffic is actually coming from the VPN while looking at the meters in the network control panel. The only "sent" traffic I see is upon initial authentication. After that it appears as though the VPN remains unused. External web sites resolve just fine, in fact too fast which also leads me to believe SL is just using my ISP DNS not the VPN DNS like regular leopard used too.

I sure wish this was a fix for me but unfortunately it isn't.

Reply

Answer 11

Paul Bush Author

Level 2

284 points

Sep 1, 2009 8:45 PM in response to Tekay

The only activity I see is upon connection, after that the meters are lifeless 😟

Reply

Answer 12

mischat

Level 1

0 points

Sep 2, 2009 3:40 AM in response to Paul Bush

FWIW, I was having similar problems with the PPTP VPN after upgrading my install of Leopard to Snow Leopard.

I was having problems using VPN, and was having problems with mDNS when trying to run 4store ( http://4store.org/) an open-source triplestore. All I had to do was :

`rm /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguratio/com.apple.network.identification.plist`

And that seemed to do the trick. This has made me a happy panda, was worried I would have to reinstall the OS, but I didn't have to in the end. Yay!

Reply

Answer 13

Sep 2, 2009 7:46 AM in response to mischat

Unfortunately this has also not worked for me!

Reply

Answer 14

Sep 2, 2009 9:22 AM in response to joelambert

I'll throw my name in the hat as having this issue too. I sure hope a fix is identified soon. This is making work difficult. I've had to boot up my xp machine to get on the VPN...

Reply

Answer 15

Sep 2, 2009 10:07 AM in response to Community User

Me too. In my case as with others, I can connect with the vpn, and I'm able to get to e-mail (exchange server 2003 through an entourage client). I wasn't initially able to connect to to our Office communications server using MS Messenger. And I couldn't connect to my company's intranet (which is sharepoint).

I tried the suggested fixes (both editing and completely deleting the preferences files. This fixed the messenger/communications server issue, but no the intranet. Safari returns a "could not find the server" message--so does Firefox.

I sure hope it gets resolved, too. I hate to have to revert back to Leopard, but it worked.

Reply