Juniper VPN Network Connect silently quits after 10.9.5 update

I remember having this same exact problem when Mavericks first came out. I found a thread on a citrix forum that had a workaround that changed how or when the arp table was updated and that fixed it back then:

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This can be fixed by disabling unicast ARP requests within Mac OS X 10.9. To do this, within Terminal run the following commands:

sudo su
touch /etc/sysctl.conf
echo net.link.ether.inet.arp_unicast_lim=0 >> /etc/sysctl.conf
chown root:wheel /etc/sysctl.conf
chmod 0644 /etc/sysctl.conf

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I tried that same fix this time and it didn't correct the issue. Seems like something was changed with network security or something in this OS update?

If anybody has a fix this time it would be greatly appreciated. I use my Mac to VPN for my job. Macs aren't supported at work so I won't get any help form them.

Thanks in advance!

I was experiencing this exact problem. I didn't keep the log info but this is what I experienced: Network Connect working fine before the OSX update. After the OSX update, Network Connect would silently die after exactly 3 minutes. I used Safari as the browser that launches Network Connect. I was able to work around this problem by launching Network Connect with a non-Safari browser (in my case, I used Chrome). Hope this helps!

We are having the same issues, any help will be appreciated .

Switching to Firefox fixed it for me too. I didn't realize it could be the browser causing the issue. I thought it was something under the OS hood.

I really want to love/use Safari as my every day browser but it seems like it's always incompatible with something or other or breaks things that used to work.

Thanks changm1!

I don't know if it applies in this case but the Juniper Network Connect and Host Checker software uses Java. The reason that is relevant is that different browsers behave differently when you (try to) run Java applets in the browser. For example Safari is a 64-bit browser and hence will only run Java applets via a 64-bit Java Runtime Environment. Currently Google Chrome is only a 32-bit browser and hence will only run Java in 32-bit mode. The big problem is that while Java JRE 1.6 was available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions JRE 1.7 and 1.8 are only available in 64-bit versions on the Mac. Hence If you have installed Java 1.7 then you could not run Java applets in Chrome. With JRE 1.6 being effectively unsupported and riddled with security issues many people have switched to JRE 1.7 and also with many Java applications like Eclipse requiring at least JRE 1.7 this creates a big problem.

Be aware that Google have announced the next version of Chrome for Mac will (finally) be a 64-bit application.

I loathe Juniper's Mac VPN clients, they are nothing but trouble. When setting up a new VPN solution for iOS clients I had the fortunate position of being totally in charge of the project and chose therefore to use a Cisco IPSec compatible server and Apple's own built-in Cisco IPSec client. Apple's client is not perfect in iOS7 it had various bugs and was IKEv1 only but the bugs I was aware of I managed to get round and have been fixed in iOS8 and the client in iOS8 now also supports IKEv2. I avoided Cisco AnyConnect to further avoid compatibility issues. Who wants to bet Cisco AnyConnect is not compatible with iOS8? Ok apologies to Cisco it looks like AnyConnect 3.0.12119 is mostly compatible with iOS8 and was released before iOS8 was. From the release notes there seems to be still one issue and it sounds like it might affect VPN on Demand which would be a deal breaker.

I understand the reasoning behind using Java for SSL VPN clients as this in theory makes it totally deployable via a web URL but this requires enabling Java applets in a web browser which -

1. It is the most insecure approach possible and the one that for Macs at least is these days the leading source of malware
2. Due to the regular security problems found in Java it is regularly blacklisted by Apple which then completely disables VPN access

I personally feel that using an MDM and the built-in VPN client (like I have) is a more robust solution. It is however perhaps not as Windows friendly. (Oh the irony.)

I did some testing yesterday and it turns out 10.9.5 did not cause the VPN software to fail. But when I installed the Safari update to 7.1 it failed. What I find interesting is that the client always fails in a fairly regular time frame. In addition our Juniper SSL client fails when you close the browser !

I have the same issue with Network Connect timing out after a few minutes after starting it up from Safari 7.1.

So, I installed Firefox (latest version: 32.0.3) and tried to get the Juniper VPN going. I get the following error message after entering my credentials:

The connection was reset

The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

- The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.

- If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection.

- If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

I also tried Chrome, but, since I already have JRE 1.7 installed, Chrome can't run 64-bit Java.

Firefox was my best hope. Not sure why that's not working... Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

,,,Paul

Looks like Firefox resolved my issue but for my configuration, I needed to install the certificates directly in Firefox. Firefox did not recognize my certificates in Keychain.

Also I copied Safari 7.0.6 from another Mac to try, no-go.

cheers, Carolus

I too was having same issue. You can download Chrome Canary which is 64 bit and this solved all my issues.

I don't know if it helps. But I downgrade my Safari to 7.0.6 and i got NO Luck. It seems to be an MacOS Issue, something similar of what was happening on the past.

If anyone could give me a tip, please help. This is currently giving me a huge headache. Just for consideration I've tried Firefox, Google Chrome Canary, but no Luck.

Firefox displays some kind of security error and Chrome Canary had an error loading one of javascripts.

Before finding this post the solution for me was to download chromium:

www.chrome64bit.com

I've just tried google chrome canary and worked fine too.

Previously I had safari 7 and mac os x 10.9.4 and network connect worked fine, after the update to 10.9.5 the problem started.

Thanks

Omar.

This might be off topic... but this is the same behaviour with Yosemite - Safari 8.0.

Using Firefox on both Maverick & Yosemite seem to have resolved the Juniper VPN quitting.

Thanks to everyone on this forum. Success to all..I hope.

Thanks for your useful suggestions, Chrome Canary worked for me. It was able to find the certificate in the keychain (and run my 64-bit JRE 1.7 Java).

,,,Paul

Thank you very much! Juniper VPN Net Connect java applet was disconnecting me between 2min 52sec and 2min 53sec consistently since the Safari upgrade. Thankfully, Google Chrome Canary launched the applet and is keeping me connected. I had tried EVERY Java setting (running java 1.7.0_67, Safari 7.1, OS X 10.9.5 (13F34)) on a MacBook Pro 15-inch mid-2012.

Tried Chrome (no luck since it's still only 32-bit). Firefox wouldn't even TRY to run host checker.

I didn't expect Google Chrome Canary to work -never heard of it - but it works perfectly. Thanks again.