Using Win2003 VPN thingy... clients get intermittent drops of internet

[latrosicarius]

Hello all, does anyone know why the client gets intermittent drops of internet connectivity when I connect to the VPN? Sometimes it doesn't find a web page for a few minutes... I keep pushing refresh, and eventually it comes back and it will go to the site no problem.

I think only the outside internet is affected... i still remain connected to the server the whole time there is a connection problem (at least, I'm not warned of a connection problem).

But here's the thing. My client is on the same network as the server (I know--there's no need to VPN to it obviously--I'm just testing it out), so I can Remote Desktop in to it during the times when the internet drops, and I can connect to the internet from there just fine.

So...
1.) it's not a problem with the internet connectivity on my server
2.) it's not a problem with the internet connectivity of my client (i never get these kinds of drops usually)
3.) it's got to be a problem with an unstable VPN connection or something

By the way, I *DO* know about that I don't have to route my internet connection through the server (see pic). When I don't, there are no problems whatsoever. But the problems occur when I do, so that's what I'm trying to solve.

Thanks

[Moby-Dick]

sounds like a DNS issue ?

do you loose connectivity to machines internal to the nextwork when you loose web connectivity.

Its a very inefficient way to browse as your web speed is limited by the upload speed of the line that the VPN host is on.

[latrosicarius]

do you loose connectivity to machines internal to the nextwork when you loose web connectivity.

No, everything else is fine, I can still connect to network file shares, use remote desktop within the network, etc. It's only the outside internet that seems to be affected.

Its a very inefficient way to browse as your web speed is limited by the upload speed of the line that the VPN host is on.

I know, but if this works, i plan on increasing my server's internet connection to a 20/20 line.

This would be especially useful for laptops on the road, because I could pick up a wireless signal at any public access point, but instead of being vulnerable to anyone snooping in on what I'm doing, all my traffic would be encrypted and tunneled to the vpn host.

[Moby-Dick]

a PPTP Based vpn is less secure than you think ( ensure that you have a very good domain password policy ) A Certificate based L2TP VPN is probably better.

If your connection to the private network stays up then something like DNS sounds to blame.

Can you tracert to an external Ip when you can't browse ? ( take down a suitable text ip before hand - bbc.co.uk is often a good one.

You may have even better performance if you use a caching proxy in your internal network, such as ISA or one of the Open Source alternatives.

If anonymous browsing from public access points is more of a point , what about using an SSL VPN solution like Megaproxy ?

Secure, fast, anonymous proxy. Enjoy our private Web SSL VPN anywhere, at anytime

[latrosicarius]

What's wrong with PPTP? What if my passwords are long, random strings with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, & symbols?

What is the weakness with PPTP?
Thanks

[badass]

What's wrong with PPTP? What if my passwords are long, random strings with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, & symbols?

What is the weakness with PPTP?
Thanks

Just the passwords used and the fact it doesn't authenticate teh connecting users computer.
If the user uses a simple password, PPTP is pretty easy to crack.

[latrosicarius]

Can Win2003 server be set up to do L2TP?

[latrosicarius]

bump?