Every week, I’m going to attempt to bring you, my faithful audience, a new tech tip churned up from the bowels of my daily experiences.
So, tech tip #1 concerns Virtual Private Networking (VPN) and wireless LAN connections. It was frustrating figuring out what a certain problem was, and the solution irritated me enough to want to make sure it never happens to anyone else.
The SetupÂ
Specifically, I will be focusing on my experience with both the Cisco VPN Client (v. 4.7) and the SonicWall Global Client, on a Dell Latitude 520 notebook computer.
The Dilemma
When connected to a LAN via the ethernet port, the client notebook creates and maintains a secure tunnel over the virtual adapter. When attempting to connect wirelessly, however, the tunnel either cannot be created or seems like it is created but will not pass any data. It’s frustrating, to say the least.
The Solution
Apparently it’s a known issue. Well, it’s known to Dell. Good luck finding the explanation on their site. It’s an issue with the Dell Wireless 1350, 1450, 1390, and 1490 network adapters in the Microsoft Windows XP operating systems, and there is currently no patch for the driver.
There is, however, a workaround:
Right-click on My Computer and click Properties.
The System Properties window comes up. Click on the Hardware tab and then click on Device Manager.
Click the (+) next to Network Adapters and double-click on Dell Wireless WLAN Adapter.
In the box that pops up, click the Advanced tab.
Scroll down to VLAN Priority Support and click on it to highlight.
Select Disable from the Value dropdown menu.
Click OK.
Close all the open windows. You’re done. Everything should work just fine now, including your VPN connection over wireless.
You may have a similar problem with a different wireless card. If so, try this. It can’t hurt, and might actually help.
TOOBZ!
Shoulda used a WatchGuard. Not that it would’ve helped in this situation, I just mean in general
Especially their new SSL VPN box. I heart that thing.
That’s it, between the Math Fact and this Tech Tip stuff now, I’m going to have to start stepping up and being a balancing factor to represent some of the baser geeky needs. So we have several options:
1) Internet porn site of the week
2) Hentai porn site of the week
3) Sexy video game character porn site of the week.
Please email your votes to colin@bostongeek.com for him to consider. And remember, only loads of annoying emails will produce results.
The problem is that you tried to put all that data into your personal internet tubes all at once. The internet is not a truck!
A WatchGuard is a fine product unless you have to do things like make a config change, in which case the thing is useless, 1/3 of the time it would freeze up, 1/3 of the time it would require a reboot to apply the change, and sometimes it would just actually work without any further intervention. It was a pretty color red though.
The problem wasn’t with the firewall, it was with Dell’s asinine implementation of a network driver.
That being said, the SonicWall is a beautiful piece of firewall machinery. The Enhanced OS is object-oriented, and after the initial pain of setting it up, maintenance is a breeze.