VPN Problem

Hi... Would you explain to us in a little more detail what you're seeing and what doesnt work?

Do you mean that the Cisco VPN client on your laptop works?, but the Cisco VPN client on your mac does not work when you VPN into work from your mac?

I have a similar issue. My MBA can connect to the VPN when testing in the office. If I go home the client no longer connects. I can connect from home using the Cisco VPN client on my windows machine, but if I use the MBA and tracing with Wireshark I do not see any reply from the Cisco ASA.

Have you checked the proxy configuration (under System Preferences > Network >Your CiscoVPN > Advanced >Proxies?

Do you have the proper ports open on the firewall of your router, and is the OS X firewall enabled or disabled?

Firewall is System Preferences > Security > Firewall.

Message was edited by: lowfokus

Thanks for your help. I have isolated this now to an issue with my D-Link 624. Trying a friends WiFi had no issues. It does seem odd that windows had no issues, but Mac did. As an aside I noticed in Wireshark that the source port is always 500 for my Mac but varies for the Windows machine but usually in the 40000 region.

Dear All,

I tried and set up a PPTP VPN connection to my office after having checked all addresses with the techies there and after trying on Windows (it worked).

Well, I was lucky to get the connection for a few seconds then the system disconnected. I have never been able to re-connect since then, no matter what I did, e.g. following all hints of an older post and namely:

1. Delete and re-set up the VPN connection.
2. Delete the network-related plist files, reboot and do what in 1. over again.
3. Enable (normally disabled) and disable Internet Sharing.
4. Check the flag "Send all traffic over VPN connection".

All this to no avail. The verbose logging is listed below after one last attempt a few minutes back.

Can anyone please help? Do you at Apple have any knowledge about it? Any solution? Surprisingly Windows is working much better, this time...

Thanks very much.

Stefano

Fri Mar 4 11:52:50 2011 : PPTP connecting to server '217.XX.XX.XXX' (217.XX.XX.XXX)...
Fri Mar 4 11:52:51 2011 : PPTP connection established.
Fri Mar 4 11:52:51 2011 : using link 0
Fri Mar 4 11:52:51 2011 : Using interface ppp0
Fri Mar 4 11:52:51 2011 : Connect: ppp0 <--> socket[34:17]
Fri Mar 4 11:52:51 2011 : sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x3a88e3bf> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Fri Mar 4 11:52:54 2011 : sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x3a88e3bf> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Fri Mar 4 11:52:57 2011 : sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x3a88e3bf> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Fri Mar 4 11:53:00 2011 : sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x3a88e3bf> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Fri Mar 4 11:53:03 2011 : sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x3a88e3bf> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Fri Mar 4 11:53:06 2011 : sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x3a88e3bf> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Fri Mar 4 11:53:09 2011 : sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x3a88e3bf> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Fri Mar 4 11:53:12 2011 : sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x3a88e3bf> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Fri Mar 4 11:53:15 2011 : sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x3a88e3bf> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Fri Mar 4 11:53:18 2011 : sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0x3a88e3bf> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Fri Mar 4 11:53:21 2011 : LCP: timeout sending Config-Requests
Fri Mar 4 11:53:21 2011 : Connection terminated.
Fri Mar 4 11:53:21 2011 : PPTP disconnecting...
Fri Mar 4 11:53:21 2011 : PPTP disconnected

I just upgraded to a shiny i7 Macbook Pro. The Cisco VPN client does not work - it gets the "Error 51: Unable to communicate with VPN Subsystem" error.

I have re-installed the client app. Looking at the console log it's clear there were a lot of errors on the install and several components did not get installed. There are hints in the Cisco release notes about checking for 64 bit support. I'm contacting our ISPs support desk - hopefully they will have an answer.

Same problem here! Cisco VPN works fine on my MBA and 2009 MBP but NO luck with my shiny new MBP 2.3GHs i7. Now what?? I get the Error 51 message. I've uninstalled and reinstalled various versions - no luck. I've tried the Terminal fix and that isn't working. I've restarted a zillion times. Also repaired permissions - which brought up errors (not sure why) but didn't fix this.

Ok - I figured this out. The 2011 computers are booting in 64 bit mode while my recent MBA is booting in 32 bit mode. So, if you force your computer to boot in 32 bit mode (hold down 3+2 during boot), then VPN works! If anyone finds a 64 bit solution, please share!

David - have you found a 64 bit solution?

You are my new hero!!

I've been faffing around with this for the last week, trying to work out what it meant in the logs by architecture mismatch, and going down the upgrade/downgrade, different clients, etc, etc.

On a 13" MBP C2D with 10.6.6, the client works fine, on the new 13" MBP i5 with 10.6.6 it must be booted to 32bit to work.

Now i just have to tell my users to boot into 32bit mode when they need VPN. Okay it *****, but it's a part solution.

Thanks

Thanks a bunch! This also solved my problem and and I was able to set-up my Cisco client and import the necessary certificates.

The following web page shows a solution to connect Cisco IPSec VPN on the 64 bit mode.
http://anders.com/guides/native-cisco-vpn-on-mac-os-x/

Thank you, Anders.