openvpn disconnects
 

Hi,

I am using open vpn client on 2 boxed one debian and one ubuntu to connect into the network at work.

I can connect fine, ping and work on the webapp that I need to use. Howerver after a few requests (https requests )sometimes only 3 or 4 the connection dies and I have to restart. The same happens if i leave a ping going, it may run for a few minutes then dies.

The only suggestions i have found when googling are forwarding ports on my adsl router. I have tried forwarding all ports both tcp and udp but I still get the disconnects.

The vpn has only been set up for a few days and our sysadmin has gone awol so theres no one to ask.

any ideas or suggestions on how to troubleshoot most appreciated.

Have you tried vpnc? That's in the Debian repositories and works well for me.

I had a similar issue so if you are already using vpnc and are on 9.04 ubuntu. Give this a go.

The new version of vpnc in 9.04 seems to have a bug that was not present in the vpnc version in 8.10 - i found the following fixed it for me in 32bit and 64bit.

All you need to do is install the old version from ubuntu 8.10 into your 9.04 install and you will have a stable vpnc once again.

Download the older package from http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/net/vpnc 32bit or 64bit

And then go to Synaptic package manager and select option to force no update of vpnc.

I have now proven that this is only a problem on my lan, i was connected all day yesterday at a friends house
with no disconnect problems.

I haven't tried vpnc, I have looked at the config options and am not sure how i would set it up, I have keys
not passwords and at the moment time doesn't allow me to figure it out.

Any ideas what the problem could be on the lan? I have an adsl router, all outgoing traffic is allowed, all
incoming traffic is blocked, i did try forwarding all incoming traffic to my machine but that didn't make
any difference.

I tried turning up the log verbosity to 9 but that just filled my syslog with a lot of stuff that i didn't
understand

I would try giving the router a reset (factory settings). It may not solve the problem but at least you can rule the router configuration out as being the problem. You shouldn't need to adjust any settings on the router for a VPN connection to work.

Thanks for the reply, I already tried that, it didn't help :(

If you were to try vpnc, run it as root. It will ask for the VPN domain name (such as rem.my.domain) then the group name (case-sensitive) and password/secret. Those two details can be provided by the manager of your VPN (it is a general username and password). After that it will ask for your personal username and password. Use vpn-disconnect as root to close the connection. If it works, you can then set up your vpnc configuration file with those details.

bigtl: I have the exact same problem with my openvpn.. I'm connected via DSL. It must be something with the DSL modem/network, because it used to be fine some time ago. I tried to lower down MTU to 1400, but it did not help.
I have the problem on my 2 laptops, running Ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04. Can the vpnc client work with openvpn server?