Mac OS X built-in Cisco VPN

[tomacsh005]

Setup:

Windows server at head office. Using CISCO VPN for remote access. Windows XP satellites work fine with CISCO VPN Client 5.0.x installed. Log in after inital 10 mintue setup. Log in within seconds on subsequents attempt.

Problem: Using the same setting on a Mac OS X 10.6.6 Apple computer using the built-in Cisco VPN client. VPN connects without any issues but accessing the network sharepoint fails with this message. "Connection failed, There was an error connecting to the server "10.168.1.120". Check the server name or IP address, and then try again..." I have tested log in to server by entering incorrect username and/or password and the server stops log in with appropriate message. I notice that the log in screen using smb:// does not show the Workgroup, I only see username and password fields ala logging into a Mac.

What possible solutions can I try from the Mac before I have to look at the Windows and CISCO setup.

thanks

[Jay Young]

Stuart,

It sounds like the vpn is functioning just fine but you are having an application issue rather than an network one.  When you said you purposely put in the incorrect username/password and it reports back a failure it tells me that you have full ip connectivity to the server.  You may want to do a wireshark capture on the vpn interface of the mac and look at the exchange between the server and the client.  Read over and do a quick comparision between a windows attempt and how the mac does it.  Hopefully this will point you in the correct direciton.

As a side note Cisco doesn't support the built-in vpn client in Mac OS X as Apple wrote that client.  If you still believe it is a network issue then you can try installing the Cisco vpn client (www.cisco.com/cisco/pub/software/portal/select.html?i=!s&imageGuId=B290D362BF2A8E8197325B6EE51E1C7EED12F641).

-Jay