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benenglish
@irs.gov

benenglish

Anon

VPN Networking, again

I don't have UVerse but I'm a tech who supports people who use VPNs (Cisco software, OS is XP) to connect to work. Our users are completely locked down with no ability to make *any* administrative changes. Normally, they plug their computers into whatever connection is provided by their ISP, the computer picks up an address via DHCP, and they can tunnel and authenticate to our network. It's very slick, fast, and our users love it.

However, UVerse has started coming in and we're seeing problems. I did a house call to a user recently and her computer was unable to acquire an IP. Since her home computer running Vista was connecting to the internet just fine, I ran an ipconfig /all on it and found that it was not running dhcp, the gateway was shown as not running dhcp, and it had an IPv6 address. Our machines are strictly IPv4.

She's in a brand new home in a brand new subdivision with all the latest and greatest including fiber all the way to her house (she says; I wouldn't recognize such a thing if it were right in front of me). She gets everything (phone, TV, and internet) via ATT UVerse.

Basically, her work laptop may NOT have any configuration changes made to it and it merely needs to see DHCP at the jack to get a connection. However, that's not happening here.

Can anyone give me some insight into the basic setup that UVerse installs and how to get a VPN initiated over it? I realize this is something that my user should be talking directly to AT&T about, but my users come to me first and, besides, my past experiences with AT&T support have been very poor. The phone support people once told one of my users to insert a setup CD into their computer and when my user told AT&T that he had no administrative rights and was completely prohibited from running any software that didn't come from his employer, the AT&T rep told him that no help could be provided and hung up. Thus, what I'd really like is written documentation but I can't find anything useful on AT&T's site.

Where should I start trying to educate myself about AT&T's UVerse setup and how it works with VPNs?

TIA for any help,

Ben

gdm
MVM
join:2001-06-15
Mchenry, IL

gdm

MVM

I have ATT U-Verse but not fia FTTP but FTTN. So the last 3000' is copper before that it's fiber.

AFIAK the RG's should be very similar it's just how the two are hooked up.

When you did a ipconfig /all what was the default gateway you got? I just remoted into my Vista box and it does say IPv6 but I think that's do to Vista not ATT or the RG.

I don't have IPv6 on work laptop that's XP64 and my wife's XP Pro laptop doesn't either.

One thing you might want to make sure is that the IP her laptop was given isn't in DMZ plus mode.

What VPN software do you use?

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

djrobx to benenglish

Premium Member

to benenglish
U-verse must have DHCP enabled for TV to work.

If the problem were that DHCP was disabled, you'd still see a 169.254.x.x address in ipconfig (or 0.0.0.0 during the acquisition attempt).

-- Rob

benenglish
@irs.gov

benenglish to gdm

Anon

to gdm
said by gdm:

What VPN software do you use?
Help > About shows about the most generic name I can imagine: "Cisco Systems VPN Client ver. ...".
benenglish

benenglish to djrobx

Anon

to djrobx
said by djrobx:

U-verse must have DHCP enabled for TV to work.

If the problem were that DHCP was disabled, you'd still see a 169.254.x.x address in ipconfig (or 0.0.0.0 during the acquisition attempt).
I didn't look at her TV (I assume she would have been less than happy if it weren't working) but what you say is very interesting since when I did an ipconfig /all on her working Vista laptop, it clearly said:

Dhcp Enabled........:No

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

1 edit

djrobx to benenglish

Premium Member

to benenglish
All that means is the interface you looked at is not a DHCP client. Doesn't mean DHCP isn't enabled on the network. It should have an IPv4 address somewhere. If you're able to cut and paste the output you're seeing we might be able to explain them.

Make sure you can crawl before you can walk. Before attempting to connect via the Cisco VPN, is the laptop getting an IP address? Is it able to surf the web?

If not then we need to figure out why the laptop isn't getting a network connection. If it is, then you can move onto troubleshooting problems with the Cisco VPN.

I've had no troubles connecting to SonicWALL and PPTP VPNs through my U-verse connection.

gdm
MVM
join:2001-06-15
Mchenry, IL

gdm to benenglish

MVM

to benenglish
I have had people use the cisco vpn client no problem with U-Verse.

Is she connecting via wired or wireless? Any software firewall you have turned on by chance for the laptop?

Below is what my Vista machine shows connected. In the RG I have this PC statically defined so it's always getting .100 ip.

C:\>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : XXXX
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : gateway.2wire.net

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : gateway.2wire.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : XXXXXXX
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::7cf6:d5c7:e617:d1d0%10(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday, October 03, 2008 6:42:17 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, October 07, 2008 6:42:16 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Dennis
Mod
join:2001-01-26
Algonquin, IL

Dennis to benenglish

Mod

to benenglish
Lot of places change the MTU to 1200 by default for VPN machines....might want to try that.

apeface
join:2000-09-16
Mckinney, TX

1 edit

apeface to benenglish

Member

to benenglish
I use a Cisco VPN client with MTU set to 1200 and running XP on my work laptop and I didnt have to change anything in the RG.

I am more curious about the PC not getting an IP. Could you elaborate on how we get from the RG to the PC's.

benenglish
@irs.gov

benenglish to djrobx

Anon

to djrobx
Thanks to all for the pointers. You've given me lots to look at. I'll have to double-check a few things and, when I do, I'll post back.