Security → HELP - VPN and Norton Personal Firewall

I finally get set up with VPN from my work server so that I can work at home and I come to find out that Norton Personal Firewall 2001 (part of the Norton Internet Security suite) does not "officially" support VPN. Sure enough, although I am able to establish a VPN connection using automatically generated rules, I cannot see any of the remote network unless I disable the firewall.

Does anybody have any experience making Norton work with VPN on a machine running Win 98SE? I would really appreciate any suggestions (i.e. setting up special rules or somehow allowing my VPN connection to function without disabling the firewall)

Thanks.

From Symantec's KB.

Situation:
You are using Virtual Private Networking with Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall enabled, and you are having problems with the connection.

Solution:
Norton Internet Security (NIS) and Norton Personal Firewall (NPF) do not support VPN connections. For this reason, Symantec technical support cannot currently support problems with VPN connections. You may be able to create rules that allow the connection with your VPN client, but those rules may not work or may not work reliably depending on the client you are using.

One possible solution to VPN connection problems, however, may be simply to update the drivers for your network card (NIC). In a great number of cases, locating, downloading, and installing the latest drivers for you NIC resolves most VPN problems--including those with NIS/NPF.

Good catch Grafixx76. Squarepants seemed quite lonely for a while.

By the way if that doesn't solve your problem, you may want to start thinking about a new firewall.

Thanks.

Actually, I had already seen this at the Symatec KB, that is what prompted my e-mail. I have already updated the drivers in my POS NIC (Its an SMC) and that didn't do anything. I was hoping someone had already run into this and may know how to configure a rule for VPN on Norton.

Oh, well ...

Any recommendations on a firewall which is known to work with the MS VPN client?

I have and do use VPN software (supposedly from Cisco Systems) with Win98+ and Norton Personal Firewall 2000.
(note: this is not the 2001 version)
I did NOT use the "automatic rule generator". I manually made rules for the VPN software every time NP-2000 griped. Also the rules would not stick under the common categories. NP-2000 has a problem where it sometimes turns your rules off. So I had to enter them under one of the system categories. Sorry, not at the Windoze system so I can't give you the exact category.

I really hate to tell you this (especially now), but I think you should have tried Symantec Desktop Firewall 2.0, rather than NPF.

It expressly mentions VPN support. You can find this discussed at
»enterprisesecurity.syman ··· =3966987 . I notice there's a trial version available also.

You might try the trial version and then do a bit of negotiation with Symantec to see if you could swap licensing if you find it acceptable.

Both the Norton firewall and Symantec Desktop Firewalls are based on the AtGuard technology, as I understand it. If anything, based on a post in one of the GRC newsgroups, the Symantec Desktop appears to have an interface closer to that of AtGuard.

Unfortunately, I have no direct experience with this product, nor do I know anyone who does. It seems to be used primarily in Enterprise environments with numerous off-site lap-tops.

Thanks Joseph, I'll check out Desktop Firewall 2.0.

And yes, NPF is based on AtGuard. I knew that before I bought it. FWIW I still think it is an excellent product. When I first got it, VPN was not really a consideration and I'm sure that if it had been I would heave learned about it from Symantec