Problem connecting to VPN when using Personal Hotspot on Macbook

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Level 1

8 points

Problem connecting to VPN when using Personal Hotspot on Macbook

Hi everyone - I have a 2011 MacBook Pro, hooked up to an iPhone4 via USB Personal hotspot while I am travelling. Internet connection works fine providing the mobile network is working ok, EXCEPT I cannot connect to VPN on my Server (SBS 2011) at the office.

iPhone on its own can connect to VPN using the VPN function on the phone - so its not a 3G issue. I know this because even when I connect the phone to a wireless broadband connection, and connect the Macbook to the phone using USB personal hotspot, I still can't connect to VPN on the MacBook.

The MacBook connects to VPN just fine if its connected directly to a wireless broadband connection - ie no phone involved.

So it seems to be a problem of the Macbook not being able to connect to VPN when using Personal Hotspot to access the internet.

This I am finding very frustrating - can anyone suggest a solution to this? Could it be a simple setting I need to change?

thanks

MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Feb 29, 2012 11:54 PM

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Answer 1

kingrack Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 12, 2012 9:06 PM in response to kingrack

For anyone with this problem, I resolved this by doing two things - not sure if it was one or both, because I did them at the same time.

Reset Network settings on iPhone (Settings-General-Reset-Reset-Reset Network Settings)
Deleted Old and Setup a New VPN connection on MacBook (System Preferences-Network)

Works fine now for me, hope this helps.

As a fall-back option I have also set up an RDP connection through a TS Gateway and use the iTap App, which gives me secure access to my remote machine - iTap much better App than Remote Desktop in my view - and I am finding I use this more than the VPN now.

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