Snow Leopard Cisco VPN timeout

I have a similar problem but not limited to an hour. My VPN just disconnects sometimes.

I used the Cisco VPN in 10.5 and never had any problems. Since I have upgraded to 10.6 and started using the built in VPN I get disconnects multiple times a day.

Doesn't seem to me like it's a settings issue. Looks more like a bug in the built in VPN.

I am having this rather annoying problem as well. It's not disconnects - well not straight away. Our gateway is said to re-authenticate after 4 hours. I get a dialog box requesting reconnection after 50 minutes. After four re-authentication requests I get disconnected. I'd like to use the built in VPN client since it is there, but I might have to end up moving to the Cisco VPN client if there is no other option. The nice thing about using the built in getting the proxies and getting the search domains without having to change locations.

Adi.

Same here, after between 30 and 60 minutes the connection suddenly drops. The most annoying thing is the dialog which pops up! It even comes to front in a full screen presentation! 😟

I'm having the same problem, don't let me down Steve!

Another Snow Leopard user (15" unibody) confirming the 1 hour timeout on VPN connections. For me, it usually happens around 56-58 minutes and the client doesn't disconnect or anything, I simply lose connectivity.

Yes, I too was hoping the 10.6.2 update would solve the issue. I have less frequent drops, but yes, they are still there. I may go back to 10.4.11 and stability. I can do without this feature of Snow Leopard.

Sign me dissapointed in the 6.2 update

I have a very simular problem on my new iMac 10.6.2. After about 45-60 min of connection is asking to re-enter my user's password (the one related to vpn connection). If I will do then the connection remains alive, otherwise (if I am not there to re-type the password) the connection is ending. The password is saved into KeyChain as I see and during the initial connection VPN goes on without entering the password. Any idea how could keep VPN alive without re-entering the password?

I get the reconnection dialog box all the time. It usually occurs 48 minutes in, but sometimes 96 minutes in.

Same problem here. Hoping for a solution soon!!

What's the cause of the disconnection? It should be in the log on whichever end initiated it.

I don't think it is a timeout. The console shows the following sequence when a disconnection occurs.

IKE Packet: transmit success. (Information message).
IKEv1 Information-Notice: transmit success. (R-U-THERE?).
IKEv1 Dead-Peer-Detection: request transmitted. (Initiator DPD Request).
IKE Packet: transmit success. (Information message).
IKEv1 Information-Notice: transmit success. (R-U-THERE?).
IKEv1 Dead-Peer-Detection: request retransmitted. (Initiator DPD Request).
... This is repeated a number of times until the following message is seen
IKEv1 Dead-Peer-Detection: maximum retransmits. (DPD maximum retransmits).
IKE Packet: transmit failed. (Information message).
IKEv1 Information-Notice: transmit failed. (Delete IPSEC-SA).
IKE Packet: transmit failed. (Information message).
IKEv1 Information-Notice: transmit failed. (Delete IPSEC-SA).

I have increased the debug level in racoon to see if it will give a little more information but still connected at the moment.

No additional information from racoon with increased debug level. Looks like (in my case at least) there is no R-U-THERE-ACK being processed when the failure occurs. They do come through at other time though. I see

IKE Packet: transmit success. (Information message).
IKEv1 Information-Notice: transmit success. (R-U-THERE?).
IKEv1 Dead-Peer-Detection: request transmitted. (Initiator DPD Request).
IKEv1 Dead-Peer-Detection: response received. (Initiator DPD Request).

at other points in the log

Anyone made any progress on this?

The built-in client is very fast to connect, the connection is rock-solid, but this little bug/feature is very annoying.

I find the VPN randomly works past the usual 58-60 minute mark. Sometimes when I try to ssh a server on the VPN, it will lag a lot for about a minute, then it will work and I wont have to reconnect for the rest of the day (8-9 hours).

As far as I can tell, OS/X racoon decides to do a main mode rekeying after approx 1 hour. Where it messes up for me is that it doesn't remember my xauth username/password and has me re-enter it. If I'm a bit too slow the connection is messed up.