VPN Question - OSX related

[rockymtnhigh]

Ok, I am having one of those infuriating problems.

I connect to several university drives via a VPN. We use VPN(IPsec) with a set profile to connect from a mac (running snow leopard or lion) to the University network. I connect it, login, it says "welcome to ISU" and then I mount one of the drive aliases I have setup, and permanently placed on my desktop. This works like a charm, and has for the past year.

Yesterday, I connect to the VPN successfully, double click one of the aliases and nothing. "There was a problem connecting to isuweb02" alias is broken, yadda, yadda, yadda.. So I bring the Air to the campus and get on the campus network, click on the alias, and it mounts instantaneously.

I decide to bring my macbook pro home to troubleshoot, see if the problem is machine specific. Its not. The same problem is occurring on both machines. When I brought the Pro home, one of the network drives was already mounted from work; once I logged into the vpn, I could access it. I then eject it, and poof - just like before, nothing connects.

I have not made any changes whatsoever to my network (running an Airport extreme lan). My machines were updates to 10.7.4 a few weeks ago, that is the only thing I can think of. I know all of the aliases actually work - as they connect on campus; there is no firewall on. By all accounts I am properly connected to the VPN, getting no errors - and indeed, was able to access it on the drive that was already mounted. BUT I can't mount anything.

Any ideas as to what might be causing this? Or how to further troubleshoot it? Driving me nuts, and causing me to waste too much time.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I am thinking this may be a 10.7.4 problem, and have nothing to do with the darn VPN. Reading reports about problems with volume mounting in 10.7.4.

Oy.

 

[John Kotches]

I am thinking this may be a 10.7.4 problem, and have nothing to do with the darn VPN. Reading reports about problems with volume mounting in 10.7.4.

Oy.

assuming the network allows icmp traffic, have you tried pinging the host that provides the remote mount services while connected via vpn?

it could very well be a 10.7 .4 bug, and the basic checks can help determine the source of the problem.

it's also possible that the path to the resource changed on the network and either routing or firewalls we're not updated.

Cheers



Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

 

[rockymtnhigh]

assuming the network allows icmp traffic, have you tried pinging the host that provides the remote mount services while connected via vpn?

it could very well be a 10.7 .4 bug, and the basic checks can help determine the source of the problem.

it's also possible that the path to the resource changed on the network and either routing or firewalls we're not updated.

Cheers



Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

I have used the same alias on campus and it connects to it and mounts it.

I also inadvertently left a volume mounted when I left the office, and when I connected the VPN when I got home, it was able to still use that volume, But when I ejected it, it would not mount when I tried it again. I am thinking the server paths are the same, but something is preventing it from mounting the volume.

 

[John Kotches]

I have used the same alias on campus and it connects to it and mounts it.

Not the same path, and usually not on the VPN. VPN is used to tunnel from an external network to the local network via am encrypted tunnel.

I also inadvertently left a volume mounted when I left the office, and when I connected the VPN when I got home, it was able to still use that volume, But when I ejected it, it would not mount when I tried it again. I am thinking the server paths are the same, but something is preventing it from mounting the volume.

Could be an authentication problem with the mount resource and given the information I'd check that with campus support .

Not enough yet to say where the fault lies. That's why I suggested basic diagnostics.


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[rockymtnhigh]

Gotcha, still not sure what the host is that "provides the remote mount services" and I'll have to go a little further up the tree than the student help desk workers to find that out. Thanks, I'll try to find it out. I emailed my local IT support, and of course they have not responded.

 

[klang]

Is anyone else having the same problem? If so I would suspect a firewall change at the campus.

I've never had a reason to attempt it on our mac's, how hard is it to back off 10.7.4 on one of your machines?

 

[Neutron]

I don't think you can go back on an Apple update.

I bet your local IT dept will tell you it's because it's a Mac. Some IT depts will just not embrace the Apple stuff.

If it just started happening since 10.7.4 came out last week I would guess it's the update itself causing it.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Is anyone else having the same problem? If so I would suspect a firewall change at the campus.

I've never had a reason to attempt it on our mac's, how hard is it to back off 10.7.4 on one of your machines?

they report no one else complaining to help desk, but it is the week after the semester ends, I am going to follow up with people next week when I get back in town again (headed out today).

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Fixed.

Wasn't 10.7.4. IT changed the path, but did not bother telling anyone. Oy. But it is fixed. And it took them three days to tell me.

Thanks for the help everybody.

 

[John Kotches]

Fixed... IT changed the path, but did not bother telling anyone. ...

Apparently I'm 3 days ahead of your IT department

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Apparently I'm 3 days ahead of your IT department

More than that, by far.

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