Problems with VPN from Hotel Rooms

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Hi,

I connect to our office network using a Cisco VPN. Normally I have no
problems connecting from hotel rooms using their broadband link but
occasionally and seemingly randomly it doesn't work and the connection
times out. For instance the hotel I am staying in at the moment
normally works fine but this week it doesn't. I'm a beginner to all
of this and I wonder if there are some obviousl things I can check on
my PC (for instance could be it be the IP address it is obtaining).

Thanks in advance.

Pete

In my experience this is due to network restrictions, specifically DNS, or older networking hardware that does not work with NAT at the site you are connecting from. In the case of the Microsoft VPN (PPTP), checking "Use default gateway on the remote network" on the VPN connectoid may help but it will also route *all* traffic to the remote gateway unless routes are specifically added. Simply put, Internet browsing could be slow for remote users with this setting clicked because, unless routes are specified otherwise, traffic goes through the remote gateway back at the office.

Many hotels block DNS, which may mean very little to a novice user, but could be something to *mention* to a support individual who's not picking up on name resolution being blocked. Blocking *all* external DNS requests on firewalls is something I have seen...a static route to the VPN subnet and proper routing from there to DNS/file/other servers will be critical for these issues.