For RV325, need suggestions for teleworker VPN client software

[pca2756xx]

As a volunteer church techie I've just installed RV325 in a scenario matching the description of small business. I've achieved port-forwarding from the outside world to a dummy host that is not mission-critical. So far, so good... I was able to get it configured. Our ISP is Comcast Business with one static IP.

Three (3) people desire secure tunneling from their homes to achieve remote desktop connectivity to an instance of Win7 that is yet to be connected to the RV325.

When I bought RV325 the fact sheet  said "use with Easy VPN software"  and I did no further homework at how this would be achieved and at what cost. I should have. Now I am ready for the next step only to find that Easy VPN is a canceled product line and the follow-on is named  AnyConnect. Looking further, I see aftermarket resellers selling blocks of 25 entitlements or more of this AnyConnect solution, which is out of our league.

I'm a noob, I admit it freely. Now disoriented. Need suggestions.

[Brandon Svec]

I have not used these myself, but there are two suggestions in this thread: http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/492067-cisco-rv320-and-anyconnect

HTH

[pca2756xx]

Thanks. It names Shrew as an alternative and that is a name I saw elsewhere as well. I'll be looking into it.

I bought the RV325 off eBay as an open-box special, and it was like new, except no DVD present.

Trying to understand how to get started with Anyconnect is just misery for a small-time newcomer.

Yesterday, I discovered that some online retailers advertise Anyconnect licenses in quantities of one for only 0.99 each. "Great," I thought. "For $5, I can buy five entitlements which is about my scope of operations and if they are wrong, well, I can afford $5." So I placed this order with Mac Mall, which some hours later replied with "back ordered" and a few hours later still with "discontinued."     .

[rob_turnbull1]

Our church uses an RV320 as a gateway and DHCP server.  We bought the RV320 new and there was no disk for the Easy VPN software.  I contacted Cisco Support and was told that the software is no longer shipped with the RV3xx routers and not supported.  Instead the Cisco Support Engineer suggested using Shrew Soft IPsec VPN Client and walked me through the steps to set it up in the router and on the PC client side. 

[pca2756xx]

This was a very useful reply (rob_turnbull1 in very similar situation).

May I ask, Rob, has the Shrewsoft proved stable.

Here is what has happened to me in the last few days. I found Easy VPN downloads on http://firewall.cx. For a few hours, things were really good and I thought I would get to declare victory. Then I somehow broke it. The tunnel would connect, verifiable in the RV325 log,  but applications (basically remote desktop, and ssh logins) just wouldn't work as they did in those first happy hours.  I checked the client logs and they said that actual data connections were not occurring. (Not any more, that is). The same symptom was all over the web for years on end with dozens of people saying "help me please." Frustrating because usually, if one of these threads concludes at all, it ends with just "I'm all good now."  You may as well search for the rules for playing Mornington Crescent.

I followed one piece of advice to get a fix kit from Citrix (not Cisco, Citrix) and that just made things worse. I did this on a low risk, recently purchased refurb laptop, and now I'm forced to reverting  the laptop to out-of-the-box condition.

But I digress. Point is, I do not want to trust Easy VPN. has the Shrewsoft worked out?

[pca2756xx]

Now, I did make an interesting discovery last night about what broke my Easy VPN client on 64-bit Win7. It was installation of Microsoft Office  2013 products

I know Easy VPN is discontinued and unsupported but others besides me are out there trying to use it. I got the VPN client working again by going back through Win7 restore points incrementally. Then I worked my way forward again. The tipping point was installation of 32 bit Microsoft Office 2013 Professional Plus suite (32-bit because Microsoft "strongly recommends" it even on 64-bit OS). That broke Easy VPN client.  

[stpa67001]

I use Shrew Soft vpn-client 2.2.2 as an alternative to Easy VPN and it has worked fine for me but it could be a bit tricky to configure so i added a few pics of a working Easy tunnel i use with the Shrew vpn-client config below.

[Hugues ROCHIN]

Thank you, I tried without success.

Does not pass Phase 1 !!!

what did you setup in tabs Client & Name Resolution ?

EDIT: It works, thank you, I mistake in Local and use FQDN instead of Key Identifier !

[rob_turnbull1]

We use Shrew Soft standard version 2.2.2 mainly for remote desktop connections to our admin servers.  It seems to be stable but I initially had problems connecting from a client lan that had the same subnet configuration as the office lan. Once I changed the client lan subnet the VPN worked well.  On the other hand,  A PPTP session doesn't seem to have this limitation.