VPN and Airport Extreme (802.11n)

A workaround, according to another post (and verified by me), is setting the default host to the ip address given to your mac. After trying this, I was able to connect to my work's VPN using the Nortel VPN client.

Obviously, this means that only one machine on the network can connect to the VPN but that's good enough for me 🙂

Apple still needs to fix this properly but this workaround made the difference between me using my new AEBS and it just being a paperweight for a while 🙂

"setting the default host"
is this a setting in your VPN software or somewhere else?

I just confirmed this solution as well. Agreed not a good one because I set my MacBook up as the default host so I can server a website and allow SSH connections but it's better than nothing. I'll just have to switch around IP's when I'm not using VPN on my WinXP laptop.

David

Sorry for not being clearer.

In Airport Utility, double-click on the AEBS. In the popup window, click on Internet. Then click on NAT. Check "Enable default host" and set the IP address to what the AEBS has given to your mac.

The Nortel VPN client then works (at least for me anyway - It didn't work before I tried this).

According to the help for the Airport Utility, "A default host is a computer on your network that is exposed to the Internet and receives all inbound traffic." This obviously doesn't sound like a permanent solution but it is definitely a workaround of sorts.

Cisco VPN Client worked with the router out of the box.
No settings to find/play with to get it working.

Thanks Stuart,

One point I am still unclear on. If I am trying to VPN through my work (Windows) laptop, do I enter the IP address of the laptop? Will that affect the connections of the Macs that do not VPN but are connected to the internet through the same base station? I was up very late last night trying to figure this out, saw the Enable default host feature but had no idea how to use it.

Other than the VPN issue it works great.

iMac G5, 3 Mac G4 Mini's, 1 nasty windows laptop Mac OS X (10.4.7)

This is what I did: I enabled default host on the AEBS via Airport Utility and gave it an address of 10.0.1.253. Then you go to your Windows laptop and setup your network configuration to NOT use DHCP but rather a static address of 10.0.1.253. Subnet probably 255.255.255.0 and router probably 10.0.1.1. You'll probably also need to get the DNS server addresses from the setting in Airport Utility so you can resolve domain names.

Thanks, Stuart.
This worked for me as well.
I had filed the problem with Apple Care.
I'll pass this along to them, so maybe the 'engineers' can give us a more appropriate fix.
Although there is plenty of rumor mongering & complaint on these boards, the help offered here makes up for it.
I owe you one -

Well, I can say that this doesn't work for me, and can't. I have a corporate laptop that I can't change network settings on, so giving it a static IP won't work. I tried changing the default host to match the IP on the laptop, and that didn't work for me.

I have to use an AT&T Global Network Dialer. Straight out of the box the connection fails when accessing the digital certificate. I, as others it seems, had no issues or special setup needs with my previous router (an older linksys B).

Anyone call Apple support on this yet?

Thanks folks - will try that when I get home tonight and will post the results.

iMac G5, 3 G4 Mac Mini's, 1 nasty windows laptop Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Alrighty then!

I did as you said: Opened up Airport Utility, Settings -> Manual Settings, Internet, NAT and "Enabled default host" and set the IP address, and had the AEBSn update.

Then on the Windows laptop, I opened the Cisco Systems Wireless LAN adapter settings, modified the WAN settings to not use DHCP, set the IP address to the same as the one I set under "Enabled default host", set the subnet mask to the same as indicated in the airport utility under internet connection, and set the default gateway to what you said to set the router to. I also added the DNS servers listed under the airport utility internet connection. I connected to the network, opened up the Nortel Contivity VPN client and it connected just fine.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I was able to set up my old AEBSg to extent the g network out into the woods (in case I get a sever case of hermititis) after figuring out you needed to add the AEBS mac address, not the name, and set up the main one first (duh).

I'm a happy camper - Thanks folks!

iMac G5, 3 G4 Mac Mini's, 1 nasty windows laptop Mac OS X (10.4.4) Apple Extreme Base Station (n) with extended WAN using older AEBS (g)

Gave this workaround a shot today and yes, it does now allow me to connect via my Nortel Contivity client. Glad someone has reported it. Hopefully Apple will give us a fix soon to this issue.

I run parallels and winxp for work related stuff.

Having the same sort of issues, only WIERDER. My company has three Nortel Contivity servers in the US, Singapore, and France. I can log on to the one in France, but not the US or Singapore. And, I can "ping" those servers too with good latency times.

I'm bringing the airport extreme back to the apple store, until such time as a better fix is made available.

Meanwhile, I've reverted to my linksys, and all works well.

Kenny

Mac Pro (intel. 2.66 Ghz) Mac OS X (10.4) 2 GB Ram

If you go to Internet->DHCP in the AirPort Utility you can tell the AirPort to give a specific IP address to a specific MAC Address in the DHCP Reservations section. Set that up and then use the ip address as the default host. You can determine your MAC address by running ipconfig /all from cmd in Windows or "ifconfig -a" from terminal on your mac. Windows lists it as the "Physical Address" and OS X shows it as the "ether".

This will effectively give you a static IP without you having to adjust your network settings.

All my systems seem to work fine but the 1 and only xp notebook I must bring home every night to support my company uses checkpoint vpn client. With this AExtreme N , The client fails to connect. Apple support stating its my checkpoint client software, however, I have been using it for many years using various routers before. Unfortunately I have re-instated my Linksys (N) unit and considering returning the Airport unit. The VPN passthrough is not working properly and there is no place to verify its enabled.