Topic: 5.6 and PPTP - again

[Jesper Bille Haun]

Does anyone know what is happening with this problem? I have read the bug report, and I have read the previous threads and tried Charlys beta RPM's. But it doesn't work for me. Outgoing PPTP dies within a few minuts.

[Ray Mitchell]

Yes but did you actually put the suggested bug fix into place ? After doing so things worked OK for me.
Charlie's rpms are only analysis tools as I understand it.

Search on vpn for some previous threads that seemed to answer this, although it would appear some users may still be having problems
Ray

[Jesper Bille Haun]

Now I have installed the bug fix (again) and I have rolled back the RPM to the one in 5.6. Result: I can't connect at all.

If I don't install the bug fix, I can get a connection, but it is very unstable.

[Ray Mitchell]

You say you did uninstall all of Charlies analysis rpms, correct ?

You did run all the steps in the bug fix, correct ?
ie
To disable the modules, make an empty custom template as follows:
# mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/rc.d/init.d/masq
# touch /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/rc.d/init.d/masq/10masq_pptp
Re-expand the template:
# /sbin/e-smith/expand-template /etc/rc.d/init.d/masq
Restart the server.

Ray

[Jesper Bille Haun]

Yes I did all that and the result was no outgoing PPTP at all.

When I went back to standard SME 5.6 I got unstable PPTP.

Now I have a new problem. I installed update4 today, and now I got no PPTP at all again.

[Jesper Bille Haun]

I only tried one of Charlies RPM's and that was pptp-conntrack-nat-1.0.1-2es.i686.rpm. I have reinstalled pptp-conntrack-nat-1.0.0-3es.i686.rpm, removed the bug fix (the two lines in masq), expanded the template and restarted the server - before installing update4.

And now it is impossible for me to connect to my work through PPTP.

As far as I can see, after update4 it is still pptp-conntrack-nat-1.0.0-3es.i686.rpm.

[Ray Mitchell]

Dear Jesper
Charlie Brady's post at
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=16791.msg65032#msg65032
says that the pptp-conntrack-nat rpms at his contrib site are just for debugging (ie these are not fixes for the original problem as I understand it) so I would suggest that you uninstal them and just apply the standard sme updates.

Also see (in the same thread as above)
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=16791.msg65032#msg65032

And particularly this thread which explains why the Mitel bug fix will allow outgoing connections, even though the Mitel bug page hints that outbound connection won't work
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=16791.msg65032#msg65032

Apart from all the above it would appear that Update4 has been released to fix outstanding pptp issues.

I have applied update4 and outgoing vpn pptp from a v5.6U4 to a v5.5 server still work OK.
(ie worked OK after I applied the earlier bug fix).

Hope this helps
Regards
Ray Mitchell

[Ray Mitchell]

> As far as I can see, after update4 it is still
> pptp-conntrack-nat-1.0.0-3es.i686.rpm.


My 5.6U4 server gives

rpm -qa pptp-conntrack-nat
pptp-conntrack-nat-1.0.0-3es

Regards
Ray

[Jesper Bille Haun]

Thank you for your help Ray, but it did not work. I have now reinstalled my server as server-only instead of server-and-gateway. That way PPTP works Unfortunately I no longer have SME's firewall in front of my pc, but I can live with that. PPTP is very important for me.

[Jesper Bille Haun]

I have just talked to one at work. He has exactly the same problem. After update4 PPTP is no longer unstable - it is not even close. No PPTP at all.