SBS 2008 Enabling VPN causes server connectivity to be lost

[Charlie R]

Can anyone tell me why does internet stop working when I try to work on vpn. The connection is configured but the pc on which I am connected is not having any active internet connectivity. It happens every time and when I disconnect the vpn connection things are working fine. There is no problem with the connectivity. I hope some internal settings is not causing the trouble.

[Fajardo]

It actually depends on the type of configuration. The behaviour is what matters the most. If it is not proper then you might face issue due to misconfiguration. You can try to find information on the error inside log where more details are listed. Is there a ISA server configured on the client system. You will need to add isa server client software and then check back. You have to enable that manually or else it might not work well. You can test by turning off ISA server client software and then check again.

[Umedd]

I am facing the same kind of issue even when I am not running ISA server. It looks like that SBS 2003 is having some kind of problem. The configuration is what matters the most. You have to access the internet and other internal client to manage vpn connection. Or else the connection will be lost after each interval.

[HenrikK]

Hello, we recently installed SBS 2008 on a new desktop. Installation went fine, no problem but when I enabled the VPN through the console, don’t know why my server lost the router connection. Surprisingly when I disable VPN server, connection gets restore immediately automatically and works fine.

So the conclusion is I can use either VPN or router connection. Windows Network Diagnostics says:

"Windows confirmed that "Primary DNS Server" is currently online, but is not responding to connection attempts at this time.The following policy might need to be adjusted to allow Windows to connect:
Policy Provider: -
Filter name: Local send V6 filter driver filter”

Any idea what is the causing this problem and how can I get rid of the same?

[Oshea]

Before I could answer you anything I would like to know few stuffs, such as:
1. Is the Port 1723 and GRE Forwarded to SBS box?
2. Did you tried SBS2003 UPnP wizard open them ?
3. Did you let the Firewall box do the VPN Accounts?
4. What you actually doing when you say Disable VPN or Enable VPN?

[HenrikK]

Thanks for your reply Oshea. Actually I’m enabling VPN via the SBS 2008 Console Network tab. And as far as GRE is concerned, it is not forwarded. Port 1723 in the router 192.168.1.1 is forward to the SBS 2008 box 192.168.1.2 and vpn passthrough is enabled.

What now?

[CoYoTeA]

The very first think that I can suggest you is change your LAN IP range to something other than 192.168.1.xxx or 192.168.0.xxx because according to your mentioned error, I think VPN is not able to find the router.

[rwheindl]

I was also having this problem. Check marking those two boxes resolved the General Failures for me too! Thanks so much!

[msah83]

i found a solution.

OK, I tried to configure my server at home so that I can use my files and share them easily at work. So I set up VPN (Virtual Private Network) using tools provided in Windows Server 2003.

Done and have it connected, I lose the internet connection. Only back up when I disconnect the VPN. I want to know why, because I don’t want to lose the internet while having the VPN because I need to send and get file back and forth all day.

I searched the internet but found nothing, except long and not-helping solutions from Windows website. So, I figured how to find one. So, I meddled with my connection… until I found the solutions.

Here’s how (I’m using Windows Vista here):

1. Open your Manage Network Connections.

2. Right click on your VPN connection and choose Properties.

3. Click on the Networking tab, choose Internet Protocol Version 4, and click Properties.

4. Click on Advanced.

5. Untick Use default gateway on remote network.

6. Disconnect from VPN and reconnect. You should be able to use internet normally again.

7. As you could have figured out already, when you connect to your VPN, the settings for internet has been made to use the remote gateway, not your current internet gateway. That’s why!