Cisco AnyConnect drop WiFi connection

[piotr_berent1]

Hello,

I'm facing strange behavior of Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client.
It works great when I'm using ethernet cable connection.
However while trying to connect using WiFi connection - VPN client allow me to login, but after that imidiatelly it drops WiFi connection and disabling WiFi service on my laptop.

I'm using:
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client 3.1.09013
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 with newest drivers

Windows 10 Pro with all recent updates.

So far I've tried - reinstalling VPN client, reset network function in Windows 10 - which removes all network devices from the system and reinstalling it once again. Nothing works. Windows firewall is completly disabled for all network profiles.

[mamdohmardini]

Hi,

Did the Anyconnect work before on this machine and now it is not working? or this is a new installation not tested before? 

BR

MTM

[piotr_berent1]

It works in the past with both LAN and WiFi cards, now works only with LAN.

I've reinstalled full system from scratch and still - lan card works fine, WiFi dropping connection.

I'm assuming that there is an issue with the Widnows 10 some update but can't recognize what causing this issue.

[mamdohmardini]

did you try to update the WIFI driver?

[pwasik]

We are experiencing this same problem on an HP 1040 G3 laptop with Windows 10 Enterprise. We have LAN/WLAN switching enabled in BIOS. This works fine with Anyconnect on an 840 G1 with same OS. Tried latest Anyconnect and latest Intel AC-8260 drivers.

As soon as you launch Anyconnect, it starts to connect then wireless disconnects. Almost seems like LAN/WLAN but why only a problem on this model?

[chris.meissner]

We are experiencing the exact same problem on the HP 1040 G3 exactly as described by pwastiak. 

This used to work. 

I have built several new computers and they are all behaving the same way. 

We also have HP 820 G3s with the same NIC and users on these systems are not yet reporting the issue.  (But I believe that at least one user has had the same issue, but have not been able to go through their event log to confirm.)

Tried changing various settings on the NIC as described in other forum posts.  No help. 

One system that was not working started working for a day and then stopped again.  But the Wireless NIC works fine and you can use it for hours until you connect to the VPN.  Works fine at home and on our internal corporate wireless.

Have tried the latest 3 releases of the AnyConnect client ending up to 4.4.00243.  Getting desperate for a solution.

[pwasik]

After wasting several hours of time focusing on what used to work, we looked in a different direction. As of Windows 8 or 8.1, Windows Group Policy has support for some settings that provide sufficient functionality for us in management the LAN / WLAN connection while not interfering with virtual adapters and VPNs. 

Look at Windows Group Policy - Computer Configuration - Policies - Administrative Templates - Network - Windows Connection Manager:

Minimize the number of simultaneous connections to the Internet or a Windows Domain - This is actually on by default but we set it to "enabled". 

Prohibit connection to non-domain networks when connected to domain authenticated network - We set this to "enabled".

Try setting these either in your AD group policy or local policy on the machine and test. It worked well enough for our needs. We also found that HP had some bulletins out that this BIOS LAN/WLAN switching no longer works for Windows 10 for some reason. And Intel Proset notes it only works on Windows 7. 

[pwasik]

And turn off the BIOS LAN/WLAN setting!

[chris.meissner]

So based on the GPO setting Minimize the number of simultaneous connections to the Internet or a Windows Domain makes it so that the switching is handled by the OS regardless of the BIOS. I'll give it a try.  Thanks again!

[pwasik]

Yes - But be patient. It might not be as fast as the hardware switching was. This is by design according to MS - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn320946.aspx

[chris.meissner]

Well, testing here at home seems pretty good.  I usually work on the wire anyway because it's like being in the office for file operations and such.  And my home office is wired up just fine.  But it's nice to have the option.  And most of my users are only ever on the wire when in their docking station at work.  So we'll test the crud out of it. 

Thanks for the link as well.  I had seen that before but things had been working so well in Windows 10 with the BIOS setting in place and these policy settings not configured that I discounted it figuring Windows 10 made another leap ahead.  I know all the stuff that is deprecated from Windows 7.  Can't wait to get my Firm all the way on Windows 10.

[chris.meissner]

Just a final update.  We spent a good deal of time testing and this is working just fine.  We also implemented the changes on our 820s and the Elite X2s that we are deploying.  Keeping things the same across the board.

Thanks once more for the point in the right direction!

[chris.meissner]

Holy Mackerel Andy!  :)  Looks like it works!!  First time I have been able to use the vpn over wireless in a couple of weeks or more!  I'll have to do some more testing once I get back in the office on Monday but looks like you are "da BOMB!"  This has been driving me crazy.  I really appreciate the swift response. (As you can tell from all the exclamation points.)  I'll update the post once we test in the office and on more systems.  Thanks again!

[chris.meissner]

Thanks for the tip.  I actually did see some of these but since the issue smacked one set of hardware harder than the other, I figured it wasn't that.  Anyway, I'll give it a go and post back. 

[dan.ilebro]

Hi,

even if we set those GPOs and disable WLAN switching in BIOS the WiFi is still disconnected right after VPN is connected.

If we wait 30-60 seconds the WiFi will reconnect and the VPN as well. But it's still super annoying.

I have tested on Windows 8.1 and 10 with different HP models and a Surface Pro 3. I have tested a bunch of different drivers, OS patch levels and so on.

Sometimes it'll work just fine for a couple of days and then it's back to not working. I'm going crazy over here. Does anyone have any suggestions?