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mystereman
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Frequent VPN disconnects in VM

I have a Windows 7 guest running on a Windows 7 host. This guest needs to connect a vpn to a remote server. I get frequent vpn disconnects (like every 5 minutes or so) when running in the VM, however if I connect from the host, no disconnects occur.

The guest is using bridged networking, and i have a very stable cable internet connection. As I said, the disconnects do not occur if I connect to the VPN from the host.

What could be causing this?

I am using standard windows built-in VPN (L2TP I think?)

Edit: It looks like it's PPTP not L2TP. Also, I have the windows firewall turned off on both the host and guest. I have a hardware firewall in place between host and cable modem, however if that were the problem I would think it would affect the host as well.

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10 Replies
mystereman
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

This is truly an annoying thing. It seems to occur precisely every 9 minutes. Further, this is not something unique to this guest, this host, or this vpn host. The problem happens with other hosts, other guests, and other vpn hosts.

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Linjo
Leadership
Leadership

Are you syncing the time with the host? Try using an external NTP source and turn off all other time-sync.

Best regards,

Linjo

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Best regards, Linjo Please follow me on twitter: @viewgeek If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".
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mystereman
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

No, i'm not. I'm not sure why time sync would affect a vpn anyways. I already sync to ntp.org

I'm using 7.1.2 by the way.

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j_parchem
Contributor
Contributor

I've experiences the exact same thing, using a SonicWall VPN. I am rock solid connected from the host but the VPN loses connection on the guest after a very short number of minutes. Also using bridged.

I have duplicated this behavior on both Windows and Linux hosts, running W7 guests.

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mystereman
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It's not just bridged. It does it with NAT as well. I was able to use the HOST connected VPN from the guest with NAT, but was not able to use authenticated resources because it was from an "untrusted domain".

Either way, there seems to be a problem with VPN's and guests.

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j_parchem
Contributor
Contributor

Keeping a ping running to a peer on the remote network is a workaround for me.

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mystereman
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Any response from VMWare?

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PnwGuy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I'm having this problem as well with 7.1.2. It seems easy enough to reproduce. Someone who's an IP geek can probably fire up Wireshark and figure out what's going on (even though the VPN traffic is encrypted).

It's just a guess, but VMware seems to be doing some sort of periodic "house keeping" that doesn't noticably effect normal TCP/IP connections but breaks VPN tunnels.

And yes, for whatever reason, the participation of VMware employees in this forum seems to have dropped way off from even where it was when 7.1.0 came out. I once had a lot of praise for VMware as a company, but the quality of both the products and support seem to be going in the wrong direction.

VMware is EMC's main cash cow these days with the margins in the storage business being horrible. And, it's just my opinion, but EMC seems to be milking the cow a little too hard. Meanwhile Virtual Box just keeps getting better and is gaining market share, and Microsoft is going to raise the bar with their Windows 8 based virtualization products. It seems like a bad time for EMC to be cutting corners trying to save money.

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bmorgen
Contributor
Contributor

I'm having a similar issue.  Seems to have started when I moved to Lion but not certain.  VPN is standard Mac L2TP. VPN is stable unless VMWare Fusion is running Windows.  Then it disconnects every 10 minutes or so. Restarting the VPN in the Mac Control Panel does not always solve the problem.  Suspending and Resuming, and restarting the VPN, seems to be the only solution. 

Maybe this console log will help someone suggest a solution:

Fri Oct 21 08:56:02 2011 : no echo-reply, start ppp_auxiliary_probe!
Fri Oct 21 08:56:02 2011 : ppp_ip_probe_send: starting
Fri Oct 21 08:56:02 2011 : ppp_ip_probe_send: found goog-dns address
Fri Oct 21 08:56:02 2011 : ppp_ip_probe_send: sent to goog-dns over scope 5
Fri Oct 21 08:56:02 2011 : ppp_ip_probe_send: found peer address
Fri Oct 21 08:56:02 2011 : ppp_ip_probe_send: sent to peer over scope 5
Fri Oct 21 08:56:02 2011 : ppp_ip_probe_send: no alternate peer address
Fri Oct 21 08:56:02 2011 : ppp_ip_probe_send: 2 probes sent
Fri Oct 21 08:56:02 2011 : ppp_auxiliary_probe[0] response!
Fri Oct 21 08:56:02 2011 : ppp_auxiliary_probe[1] response!
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : no echo-reply, despite successful ppp_auxiliary_probe!
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : No response to 3 echo-requests
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : Serial link appears to be disconnected.
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : ipcp: down
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : sent [LCP TermReq id=0x3 "Peer not responding"]
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : Connection terminated.
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : Connect time 61.7 minutes.
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : Sent 10165572 bytes, received 362099862 bytes.
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : L2TP disconnecting...
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : L2TP sent CDN
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : L2TP sent StopCCN
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : L2TP clearing port-mapping for en0
Fri Oct 21 08:56:22 2011 : L2TP disconnected
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0WayneH0
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

There's some suggestion that this may be a generic VMware/VPN issue. I just want to throw out there that I have been using VPNs and VMware workstation for a long time (approx 18 months) on multiple guests with no VPN problems, period.

Range of WS versions: 7.0.x, 7.1.x, 8.0

Different VPN solutions: CheckPoint VPN-1, F5 SSL VPN and also standard Windows VPN.

Different guests: XP, Vista x86/x64, Win7 x86/x64.

Hosts: Win7x64.

Guest networking: Bridged.

Local router: Belkin.

~~~~~~~

I should have paid attention to how old this thread was, but still... :smileyblush:

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