Topic: PPTP Problems still?

[Paul F]

Is there even a workaround for PPTP instability with 5.6U4?

I had been connecting from a machine behind a 5.5 box and never had problems. Now my connections are dying within 30 seconds

I have searched and read about other people experiencing the same problems and supposedly it is fixed in 6. The problems seem to have been around for some time and again I'm just wandering if there is any work around. I need to connect to remote sites sometimes and now I am booting up with a router-floppy when I need to, lol.

Thanks

[Ray Mitchell]

What about this
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=18016.msg70612#msg70612
and other posts in the thread
Regs
Ray

[Paul F]

Thanks Ray. As far as I can make out, these articles refer to non i686 archs. I am using Pentium Pro's and PIII's both which I believe are i686. Therefore the mppe patches are included by default. In any event I removed and reinstalled the i686 mppe package to no avail

[Ray Mitchell]

Fine, but that post also referred to:

You may also need to change some settings in your VPN client setup
eg
check (ticK) Require data encryption.

My (Windows 2000 Pro) client VPN setting that worked OK for v5.5, did not allow a stable connection under v5.6, until I changed them.

Review your VPN settings in Windows workstation
Regs
Ray

[Kelvin]

Hi Paul and Ray,

I've been lucky enough to not have encountered the SME 5.6U4 PPTP problem up until very recently. When I did encounter it however, the workaround I used was one posted at the contribs phorum.

ie. a modification (of the relevant templates as well) of the /etc/ppp/options.pptpd file to include the word "multilink" without the quotes between the ms-wins and name lines.

Then, set Settings of the Networking tab of the dial-up networking entry in your Windows PC to enable Negotiate multi-link for single link connections.

This has worked each time and every time I've had the problem so far.

Kelvin

[Paul F]

Hi Kelvin. I see the thread on contribs BUT NOT the wqrkaround!

Would you mind directing me to this? I tried this:

a) Editing options.pptpd as above

b) Created a file that called multilink and containing the word multilink in /etc/e-smith/templates/etc/pptpd.conf/

c) Did signal-event post-upgrade and "" reboot

Problem remains

I also tried Ghislain's RPM to no avail.


Thanks!

[Paul F]

I notice that continually pinging (ie. dos - ping -n 10000 192.168.1.1) seems to keep the connection alive

[Kelvin]

Hi Paul,

If you just want to test if the problem is fixed, ignore the templates thingy for the time being and try this :-

Edit /etc/ppp/options.pptpd

Scroll down and you will likely find a line that reads :-

.
.
ms-wins 192.168.100.100 (your SME's IP address)
name smeserver (your SME server name)
.
.

Insert a line between them that so that it reads :-

.
.
ms-wins 192.168.100.100
multilink
name smeserver
.
.

then save the file.

On your Windows PC (in my example, Windows XP Pro), go
Start -> Settings -> Network Connections
On the list of network connections, right click on the VPN connection to your SME server and choose Properties
Click on the Networking Tab
Under the Type Of VPN, click on the button called Settings
Click and enable the option Negotiate multi-link for single link connections.
Click OK then OK again.

Now establish a VPN connection to the SME server and test if the problem you had persists. If the problem is fixed, then worry about the template .....

Kelvin

[Paul F]

Thanks for staying on this thread.

Yes I did exactly that to no avail Both on the server end and on the SME 5.6 box that my windows client is behind. Is this your same setup?

Without making any changes on the server side, I am able to maintain a PPTP connection with several other distros including SME 6B3

I'm not ready to go with SME 6B3 due to the lack of contribs.

I also tried different MTU and MRU settings on the serves options.pptpd to no avail.

If I keep a ping going from the windows client to the server the connection stays stable LOL.

Thanks again, any other ideas?

P.S. One contrib I like is service control, version for 5.6 seems to wreak havoc on 6. Do you have any tips for manually disabling services?