It's the Cisco VPN client - our Cisco guys have experiemented with it quite
alot.  Our biggest problem is that our VPN users are mainly Doctors and
nurses and other medical people and for the most part are EXTREMELY novice
on the computer.  We are happy just to get them connected and looking at
x-rays and patient profiles remotely.  There are also about 75 other systems
they connect to once they get in - and the firewall reeked havok with many
of them as well.
Even walking them through disabling the Windows firewall is more than they
want to do as far as their computers go.  They want to just push a button
and be connected to the hospital.
While they are connected to the vpn they have the benefit of the vpn
firewall, so we do suggest to them the possibility of their turning the
WIndows firewall back on after they disconnect from the hospital
servers.....but very few if any want to be bothered.  We also recommend that
they would benefit from zone alarm but we have no idea how many of them
actually download it.

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Gillett" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2005 2:06 PM
Subject: Re: [PCSOFT] SP2


>  Have you expermented with configuring the firewall to pass the VPN
> traffic?  Or do you just enable it and discover the traffic is blocked by
> default?
>  Depending on the specific VPN protocol used, it might be possible to
> enable a port or program exception which handles it.  But if it uses a
> transport protocol other than TCP or UDP (PPTP and SSL VPNs use TCP; GRE
> and
> IPSEC VPNs don't, although some IPSEC implementations offer a UDP
> alternative), you may need to switch to a firewall product that supports
> these additional protocols.
>  [Since there are alternatives available, one could argue that your IT
> group's choice of what VPN technology to deploy is as responsible for the
> problem as Microsoft's firewall implementation.]
>
> David Gillett
>
>
> On 3 Dec 2005 at 14:25, Robin Purtee wrote:
>
>> We've found that our VPN client absolutely will not work with the Windows
>> XP
>> firewall that is provided in SP2.  100% of our users with XP computers
>> have
>> called in to us to find out why their VPN client cannot make contact with
>> the Hospital's VPN.  We walk them through turning off the firewall and
>> everything works fine after that.  I use Zone Alarm (free version) with
>> no
>> problem since it allows you to specify acceptable connections.
>>
>>
>> > That's going to depend on your computer. Your best bet may be to visit
>> > the manufacturer's web site and look for information. MS has published
>> > a
>> > list of "Programs that are known to experience a loss of functionality
>> > when they run on a Windows XP Service Pack 2-based computer".
>> > http://support.microsoft.com/?id=884130
>> > I've installed SP2 on 15-20 computers with no problem at all.
>
>      "Hold No Punches.." Rode brings you great shareware/freeware
>        programs with his honest opinions in this weekly column.
>                       http://freepctech.com/rode

      "Hold No Punches.." Rode brings you great shareware/freeware
        programs with his honest opinions in this weekly column.
                       http://freepctech.com/rode