VPN

Hi,

We were using m0n0wall and its PPTP VPN for almost 2 years now and it always worked great. After upgrading from 1.22 to 1.23 however, the connection always times out after some idle time. I think the timeout value in previous versions was over an hour or so, and it was perfect for our use, where we need to keep connection open for long periods of time without much activity.

Scoured through the whole WebGUI and didn't find any setting that controls this timeout value. How can I change it?

Thanks

Is your WAN interface using PPPOE by chance?

Roy...

No. It's a static IP.

This could be related to the bug described in the following post:

http://forum.m0n0.ch/index.php/topic,18.0.html

Please try the fixed mpd binary as described on that page and let us know if it fixes the problem.

I don't believe I'm seeing this on 1.23 but I'll bring up a PPTP connection to a static 1.23 and see if I can duplicate your problem.  BTW, how often is it disconnecting?

Roy...

Manuel,

I'm having a problem downloading the mpd file. Internet Explorer wants to open it or save it as txt file. Is it possible to re-post this file as a zip archive?

Roy,

Connection drops every time. I cannot tell you after what time interval exactly or whether it happens only if it sits completely idle. I am using it to connect to a shared drive on office network or for Remote Desktop to a Windows XP machine. Connection drops approximately after about 5-20 minutes.

OK, I've downloaded mpd file and executed the chain of commands listed. I'm going to try this fix tonight and post my observations tomorrow.

Thanks

Test Results:

First disconnect was at 30 min. I restarted the connection and will see if it disconnects again.

BTW, I believe you use the m0n0wall GUI to download the file.

Roy...

Hmm,

Before I got a chance to test a patch myself, another co-worker contacted me saying that she gets Error 678 (remote computer didn't reposnd) when trying to connect through VPN. I'm going to have to reboot monowall.

Thanks
Partizan

Yet another disconnect after 30 min of pinging the remote 1.23 m0n0wall.

Houston, looks like we've got a problem!  )

Roy...

OK - 3 times in a row it has disconnects at ~ 30 min.

Roy...

I have the same problem - I used PPTP VPN for about 2 years - it worked fantastic 

Last working firmware was 1.22.

After upgrading to 1.3b2 PPTP connections diconnects after 30 minuts - in the log I have :

Mar 26 08:58:03 192.168.1.9 mpd: [pt0] idle timeout after 1800 seconds
Mar 26 08:58:03 192.168.1.9 mpd: [pt0] IPCP: Close event
Mar 26 08:58:03 192.168.1.9 mpd: [pt0] IPCP: state change Opened --> Closing
Mar 26 08:58:03 192.168.1.9 mpd: [pt0] IPCP: SendTerminateReq #161
Mar 26 08:58:03 192.168.1.9 mpd: [pt0] IPCP: LayerDown
Mar 26 08:58:03 192.168.1.9 mpd: [pt0] IFACE: Down event
Mar 26 08:58:03 192.168.1.9 mpd: [pt0] exec: /usr/local/sbin/vpn-linkdown ng1 in...

Same is after downgrading to 1.22.

After that I upgraded to 1.23 and fixed with the patch :

http://forum.m0n0.ch/index.php/topic,18.0.html

And it didn't help - after 30 minutes connection is broken

So I'm guessing the fix is still in progress but it's not very easy or it's just been forgotten.... Going back to 1.22 

I have been able to reproduce this issue with 1.23 - turns out that the MSS clamping fix introduced in 1.23b2 (taken from mpd-4.0b) altered the way packets were counted towards the idle timeout.

m0n0wall 1.231 has just been released (http://m0n0.ch/wall/downloads.php), and it (hopefully) fixes this issue.

Thanks everyone who posted here to report this issue!

Finally had a chance to test out 1.231 update and my VPN seems to work again now. Thanks a lot!