Server communication error in Anyconnect

[jlaw]

I have 2 users who have travelled back to their hometown in Henan province, China. Interestingly, both of them reported unable to connect to any VPN node (AMER, EMEA, APAC) in our Cisco Anyconnect. I have asked them to connect to 3 different internet providers at Henan province but they keep getting the error "Connection attempt has failed due to server communication errors. Please rety the connection".

I have advised the user to try different internet provider and they hotspot from their mobile phone but keep prompting the same error. They are also unable to open the VPN url on their laptop browser as well as their mobile device. It doesn't impact the rest of the users in other China locations and globally. 

For these 2 users, they can access other websites but unable to connect VPN. 

Any advise or recommendation or workaround?

[marce1000]

 - Check the VPN (Anyconnect) server's logs for these attempts ,  if nothing is seen , the something in between is blocking the network path , 

 M.

[jlaw]

Nothing is detected because it is not hitting the url. It seems more on the internet provider side...

[Milos_Jovanovic]

AFAIK, China is a very specific market, where Internet access is being regulated by government (I've heard for the expression Great FW of China). For that reason, and depending on protocols in use, couple of things crosses my mind:

• You are using IKEv2 Cisco AnyConnect VPN, and IKE is not permitted,
• SSL VPN is in use, but, due to decryption, VPN can't be established.

I would attempt session and generate DART, to try to understand from there what is going on and why session can't be established.

Kind regards,

Milos

[cye]

I am having the same issue in Henan province.

Funny thing is my phone service is the same provider as the internet, which is China Telecommunications.

When my laptop connect to internet (with internet access), I am not able to connect to VPN.

However, if I connect my laptop to hotspot, then I have no problem connect to VPN

[jlaw]

My user mentioned a workaround solution by using China unicom home broadband not mobile hotspot - China Mobile wifi is not working and China Unicom mobile hotspot does not work. It seems that China Unicom home broadband wifi works

[Rafe]

I have the exact same issue and I'm also in HeNan province... Tried with China telecom LAN / China Mobile 5G / China Unicom 5G, all failed. And our IT team has spent two days on this issue and there's any update... If it's ISP issue we have to accept it and give up the investigation from software side. Thank you.