Airport Express (2nd Generation) - VPN/Telnet Client Connection Issues

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Airport Express (2nd Generation) - VPN/Telnet Client Connection Issues

Hi,

This is my issue...

On Wednesday, I had normal broadband (upto 16 Mb) from my UK ISP and used a Netgear wireless router to connect all my devices and every worked with no issues. Working from home was not a problem, and I could connect to work via VPN Client and furthermore, via a telnet session to implement work related stuff.

On Thursday, I was upgraded to fiber broadband (upto 76Mb) from my same ISP, but this time, I'm using an Airport Express wireless router. I created a new network using my PPPoE credentials. And everything connects to the Network fine...my personal laptop (MAC ProBook),IPhone, IPad with no issues. However, my work laptop (Win 7), struggles to maintain a VPN/telnet connection when I work from home. I can initally connect to the VPN and create a telnet seesion, however after 10-15 mins, the connection always drops. Thinking it could be an issue with my work laptop, I later drove to my friends house, who has normal broadband, I had no issues.

So, I'm thinking the only new things are the new Fibre Broandband and Apple Airport Express. I contacted my ISP and they say, its not an issue with them.

I know my VPN client is on its way to disconnect, as my telnet session say, 'Could not Open connection to the host, on Port 23, Connect failed'...shortly afterwards, the padlock icon of VPN client show disconnected.

Is the Airport Express cutting out my VPN client? Is there I need to setup? Would really appreciate some help as I'm new to this kind of issues.

Thanks for reading...and hopefully you can help.

AirPort Express 802.11N (2nd generation), latest software installed.

Posted on Feb 21, 2014 3:34 AM

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Answer 1

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LaPastenague

Level 9

67,226 points

Feb 21, 2014 2:32 PM in response to Siv2k14

What about putting the Netgear wireless router back into play.. even if it is slow and see if it has any issues..

If not then you have absolutely proven the cause of the problem is the Express.. and yes.. port forwarding is problematic.. especially on a PC. .because Apple routers do not talk UPnP they talk NATPMP (Apple had to make their own system of course). The ports required for the vpn are just not being controlled as they should be.

You can put the PC into the Express DMZ..

see the stuff about port forwarding on airport routers.

Tesserax is always posting as people continually have problems with for example, gaming consoles.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5911800?tstart=120

Place the console in the DMZ is one way to overcome (maybe) some of the issues.

Same in your case.. you either need DMZ or you need to manually configure those ports so your computer can always access the WAN device.

Tesserax also has basic port forwarding (mapping) advice for the airports.

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3415

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Answer 2

Siv2k14 Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 24, 2014 1:38 AM in response to LaPastenague

Thanks LaPastenague!!

And it kinda works now wirelessly...from dropping every 10-15 mins...it drops every 1-2 hrs...

The weird thing is...when I connect directly to the Airport Express...it doesn't drop once. It's only when I connect wirelessly. I connected the Netgear and took out the Airport Express and it worked fine.

Thanks for links...will have a play around and hopefully, get the VPN to be connected for at least 8hrs 🙂

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