douglasb

My Belkin wireless modem/router stopped working and, after talking things over with some people in India, it was replaced pretty quickly. I've now set the new router up and am having a strange problem.

With the exception of passwords, SSID name, enabling WPA2/PSK, it's pretty much factory default. Desktop PC is connected directly via Ethernet cable and works fine.

With the old router, I was able to connect my work laptop wirelessly to my internet connection and connect to the work network using VPN software. This isn't working correctly at the moment.

The laptop will connect wirelessly to the new router and gets assigned an IP address by DHCP. If I then start the VPN software it connects to work but I get a "Can't connect to the Outlook server" message if I try to collect email. I can ping the default gateway (on the same subnet as the IP address that the VPN DHCP assigns) but I can't ping the DNS servers.

However, if I connect the laptop to the router using an Ethernet cable everything works fine. I can ping the (same) gateway and the (same) DNS servers. I don't think I've changed any settings on the laptop relating to the wireless connection and I can't remember changing any settings on the original router over and above those that I've mentioned.

Any ideas??

hodgy0_2

i had a similiar problem connecting a laptop via wireless to a VPN at a 3rd party company from my offices, it had to be the wireless because the exact same setup worked from home (lan and wirless)

i never really bothered to look into it -- I just worked from home for most of the project (8 mnths), but I assumed it was something to do with the encryption that was set up on the work network, which I had no control over so "didn't go there" with our system dept

change your wireless security to unsecured and retest -- and maybe just set up a mac access list -- after all once your VPN is up traffic is encrypted anyway)

spectrum48k

the only thing that's changed in the equation is the router.

Speak to Belkin support - sounds like it could be the router's firewall, which may have a different set of rules for wireless connections than it does for wired connections.

douglasb

Thanks guys.

I don't think I explained things clearly. I can get a wireless connection from the laptop to the new router and with this I can connect to the VPN. What happens from there depends on whether I am connected to the router by wire or wireless.

The router gives me an IP address in the 192.168.2 range. Whichever way I connect to the VPN this gives me an IP address in (for example) the 10.93.44 range. The default gateway is in this range and I can ping it from the laptop so I am connected to the VPN.

The VPN DNS servers are in the 10.93.96 range. I can ping these if I am connected by wire but not if conencted by wireless. Does this change any of your suggestions?

(The new router uses the same firmware version as the old one and I started from factory defaults).

Thanks

Doug

hodgy0_2

i would try with no security set on the router, i.e. turn WAP/WEP off and see what happens

evil_scoobs

Check your routing table on your laptop when your on wireless and compare it to when your wired, or run a trace route and see how far you get.

douglasb

Thanks Hodgy!

I went back to unsecured, connected to the VPN, then tried pinging the DNS servers. That worked. Then enabled 128 bit WEP, repeated the tests and it worked again. Enabled WPA/TKIP and I was back to square one. I could get a wireless connection, I could ping the gateway, but I couldn't see anything beyond that.

Played around (sorry, logically experimented ) with the various authentication and encryption settings and found that WPA-PSK with AES worked. I was changing the properties of the wireless connection on the laptop with each change I made to the router settings, so I didn't just stumble on the router configuration that matched the laptop settings.

So, thank you; it's now working.

Now, would anyone like to explain why with a wireless connection to the router and a connection to the VPN I couldn't connect to any subnets other than the local one despite being able to see the gateway?

hodgy0_2

yep -- this sound like the problem I had, the network I was trying to connect to was for a major financial institution so not only had VPN but also NAP (Network Access Protocol) which qurantined your PC if you did not have Avirus/Updates etc etc installed and working

but I suspect its something to do with the double encryption of VPN plus wep/tkip-- i think off the top of my head TKIP also continously resets the encyption key to prevent man in the middle attacks and also re-encrypts wep -- so we may have three encryptions going on -- an asteroid will hit you before get hacked anyway

nice to see a logical problem diagnosis (thumbs up smiley)

it always amazing the way some people try and troubleshoot the most complicated senario possible

Simon C

I had the same problem with my works lappy and my linksys router..

Turned out ot be the verison of cisco I was using. Downgraded it to 4.?? from 5.?? and all came back to life.