Took another look at this last night. Wasn't making much progress and suddenly the router web admin page popped up that there was an update. The version # of the update was 1.0.02.9000 . I had been running the newest version 1.0.01.18, which is still the newest version shown on the Cisco site. IT seems the router web admin software might be the best way to find the newest version.
After downloading the update, the VPN started working again. However please note, some of my configuration settings didn't carry over properly to the new version. For instance WAN went from PPPOE to DHCP losing internet connectivity. I must say the new software seems much much better once you address these kind of configuration changes and the windows networking started worked as soon as I upgraded. If I didn't have physical (non remote) access to the router when I did the firmware upgrade I would have been in trouble.
The new software is much better, looks totally different all around. I love it, but I got lucky that I was able to access both physical customer locations last night, after the update knocking out my WAN connection (among other configuration losses / changes)
Sharing this hoping it can help others avoid a terrible experience, and to share that the site to site VPN in the newest firmware seems to work much better.
