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VPN problems with Linksys WRT300N .. but WRT54GS works!

My trusty BEFSR41 failed after many years of service (it was unable to get IP address lease from the cable modem). I purchased a WRT300N, figuring that I might use the Wifi feature in the future, even though I don't have any wireless devices right now.

So, I install the new router, change my password, disable the Wireless features, verify that the VPN passthrough are enabled. My 2 PC's (running XP Pro) in the LAN can access the internet just fine .. until I initiate VPN (Cisco client) on the PC I use for work. As soon as that VPN is established, I lose all connectivity on that PC. I cannot ping any devices at work or on the internet. I even disabled the firewall features on the router, but to no avail. All functionality was restored when I disconnected from the VPN.

I returned that router and installed a WRT54GS. Everything, including VPN worked right off the bat (I changed the password and disabled wireless on this as well.). Again, VPN passthrough (all 3 protocols) was enabled (by default) in both routers.

I can only conclude that there is some bug in the WRT300N firmware.

The hardware and firmware versions of my devices were:

WRT300N: ver 1.1 Firmware 1.51.2 dated 6/4/07 WRT54GS: ver 7.0 Firmware 7.50.0 dated 3/20/07

Any ideas, comments?

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Reply to
Aloke Prasad
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Aloke Prasad hath wroth:

Can you ping the router?

Those are the current versions.

Check what IP address is being delivered by the remote VPN server. Run: start -> run -> cmd IPCONFIG With the VPN connected, you should have TWO different IP addresses, and gateways. What are they? The gateway is especially critical because it probably points to the corporate VPN server, which is where you should be getting your remote connectivity.

IF the IP's look ok, then try: route print That's the routing table, and yes, it's difficult to read and understand. Compare what you get with the two routers and see if there's anything different. They should be identical. The line with "default gateway" is especially important as that's where you packets are going. This is on a different VPN issue, but shows what to expect:

Yet another guess(tm). Does your local network use the same class C IP block as the office LAN at the other end of the VPN tunnel? For example, are you using 192.168.1.xxx for both work and home? If so, change the IP block at home to 192.168.something_else.xxx and see if it works. Most routers will deal with the inevitable duplicate IP's and convoluteed routing but many do not.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

It is difficult to troubleshoot the WRT300N now, as I have returned it to the store. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced problems with VPN using this router.

Reply to
Aloke Prasad

Aloke Prasad hath wroth:

Google is amazingly helpful for such things. Searching for "VPN WRT300N", Google excavates:

(a bunch more...)

The first one looks almost exactly the problem you were having. However, it was solved by a firmware upgrade, so that's not it. It's interesting that ALL the users that were having problems were using the Cisco VPN client.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

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