RE: LINKSYS and VPN

It is really interesting to see this Jim. About a month ago I started having
all kinds of problems keeping a VPN connection to work going.

We have SBC DSL "business class" at home (they called two months ago and
offered that speed jump for next to nothing) and use the 2Wire Home Portal.
I also had a Linksys router from when we have cable internet access and just
continued to use that since we have multiple PC's.

I would fire up the VPN client and be on for a VERY short time. Then the
Home Network light would go out and everyone else would loose their internet
connection.

I would reboot the 2Wire and all would be OK until I tried that again. I
thought maybe SBC had maybe put the quash on VPN (I've heard that some do
this but not them) so I went Googling for that and got a lot of hits on the
2Wire and opening up ports, etc. I did not feel comfortable with this
because I knew I had changed NOTHING and it HAD been working fine for nearly
year. I'm not sure what finally made me do this, but I connected the PC I
was using directly to the 2Wire and walla - I was on via the VPN and stayed
on.

So I am still not sure what the Linksys deal did, but I have another one to
stick in there and haven't done that yet.

Could something have gotten changed in the Linksys router to cause this ?

Thanks,

Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jim Essinger
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 11:45 AM
To: kirkg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: LINKSYS and VPN

   Hi Kirk,

   Yes - I am on a different network at home.  192.168.2.xxx (DHCP assigned)
   at home, and 172.24.1.xxx  (Static) at work.  I have, as a test,
   re-installed my old DLink firewall, and removed the LinkSys from the
   loop.  As soon as I did that, I can connect to work, get a iSeries Access
   Signon screen, and I have access to my work network, and can update the
   work firewall as the admin, just like I used to.

   So it looks like a LinkSys problem.  the LinkSys also locked onto an
   address assigned by the DSL router, and would not let go.  It would not
   respond to the wireless clients either.  After I rebooted the LinkSys, it
   still would not give up the address and acquire the correct and new one. 
   There seems to be issues with this unit, and will others that I have
tried
   at home.  i don't know if they are all poor quality, but I think I need
to
   get in touch with whatever support I can, and have these issues
addressed.

   I thought the LinkSys - being a Cisco product, would be a good piece of
   hardware.  It turns out to be a piece of something else! ;-)