Loss of connectivity when combined with Cisco VPN client.

[Benjamin_L]

Binary package hint: network-manager

When using the Cisco VPN client to get access to my university's network my wireless network adapter always gets disabled what results in no connection at all. After deleting network-manager it works without any problems but I need it to access my home network and some other WPA protected networks.

[Gert Kulyk (gkulyk)]

For me it works fine - are you using cable and wireless-network simultaniously? There is a setting in the profile-file (EnableLocalLAN), which may disable other network-cards, if you are connecting to your university. If the connection is realized through cable (or the cisco-client tries to do so), wireless gets disabled. The EnableLocalLAN-setting defaults to 0, change it to 1 and retry.

Another possibility is that you are encountering Bug #42504. As for my university-account (Free University Berlin), the initial connection is unencrypted. There are issues with wpaclient and network-manager connecting to unencrypted networks. A possible workaround (patched packages) is available in the comments to the bug-report mentioned above.

[Benjamin_L (benjamin-lebsanft)]

The initial connection in Augsburg is unencrypted too but neither your solution (already was set to 1) or the packages in the other bug worked.

[Gert Kulyk (gkulyk)]

As already mentioned, after installing the fixed packages it works for me. I'm using linux-vpnclient-4.8.00.0490-K9 and a broadcom-wlan-card with ndiswrapper on the latest dapper-kernel. How do you connect otherwise? Before there were the patched packages, I was using network-manager at home, but at university I was connecting via wifi-radar. It's not the best solution, but it worked without uninstalling network-manager.

But maybe you are lucky, and the it-guys in Augsburg are using a configuration, that can be accessed using vpnc - do you know if the configuration-file uses hybrid-mode or certificates? If not, you may find solutions (as far as I remember, it was e.g. Aachen) to get it work without the cisco-client (cisco-client sometimes was freezing my machine, it's proprietary and not well integrated).

[Benjamin_L (benjamin-lebsanft)]

I use linux-vpnclient-4.8.00.0490 on an atheros based card and madwifi drivers in the restricted modules.

vpnc doesn't connect, don't know why. They use certificate configuration (cisco profiles and root certificate IIRC)

[Baxter Shepperson (baxshep)]

  I have the same problem accessing a Cisco Pix 515e. Once I connected, I lost all connectivity yet the VPN connection stayed up. Removing network-manager and rebooting fixed this completely. I would be happy to post all logs needed.

[Gert Kulyk (gkulyk)]

Can you try to do a 'sudo /etc/init.d/vpnclient_init stop && sudo /etc/init.d/vpnclient_init start' after graphical login? As I mentioned above, for me it is working fine. Due to the fact, that I do not always use cisco-vpn, I wrote a script to connect to my university-account, loading the client-module only if it is used (the client sometimes was crashing my old desktop-system, connecting by modem, that's why I distrust the clients behavior). Maybe that resolves the conflict.

[Scott Robinson (scott-ubuntu)]

Is your VPN client requiring all other interfaces to be disabled? Check your vpnclient configuration profile.

[Benjamin_L (benjamin-lebsanft)]

Seems to work with latest feisty, at least I don't experience the same problem any longer.

[Rich Johnson (nixternal)]

confirming due to responses. However is everyone still experiencing these issue with any of the latest stable releases?

[jan_k (wobble-gmx)]

I am still experiencing this with the most recent Feisty setup. The connections comes up and breaks down after about 30 seconds. There are notifications whatsoever. I just lose the
connection without warning. The vpnc still indicates a stable connection.

[jan_k (wobble-gmx)]

Correction: There are NO notifications.

[jan_k (wobble-gmx)]

Excuse the spam, please remove my posts if you like.

Looks like it's a vpnc regression. Package: vpnc (0.3.3+SVN20051028-3ubuntu2) from Edgy is working perfectly. Doesn't seem to be a N-M problem in my view.

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

This has, at least as far as I can see been fixed in Feisty. Turn on Feisty updates and an updated and working package wll be installed automatically.