VPN client causing tracert tcp/ip stack issue.

[rolinger1]

Hello,

System: XP Prof (Version 2002) Service Pack 2

Cisco VPN Client: 5.0.03.0560

This is a corporate banded laptop, so I don't have the luxury of upgrading the service pack, patches or software - all that stuff has to be directed from the company to ensure security and other compatability issues.

The Issue:

For about a year now my laptop config hasn't changed, traceroute (tracert.exe) has always worked and been a necessary tool of my job.  It has worked on my native lan, out to the internet and while vpn'd to my company.  About 3 weeks ago tracert stopped working and I have been troubleshooting it since.

Here is the output of tracert now (vpn not connected):

c:\>tracert www.bankofamerica.com

Tracing route to wwwui.3dns.bankofamerica.com [171.159.100.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.
10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
15   128 ms   126 ms   127 ms  wwwui-prodca.bankofamerica.com [171.159.100.100]

Trace complete.

From the above output a few things are interesting.  1) traceroute is translating dns properly 2) it reflects the identical amount of hops from a traceroute coming off of a different computer and 3) the last hop is getting resolved.  To me, this indicates that tracert is working proplery.

After many different attempts to troubleshoot the problem I tried resetting the tcp/ip stack ("netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt") and rebooted the computer.  After that tracert worked just fine.  I then relaunch the Cisco VPN client and try to connect to my company network but the VPN won't connect - it just cycles through the multiple hosts and ultimately fails.  Ok...so I reset the tcp/ip stack and affected the VPN, that makes sense.  I reinstalled the VPN client and now I can reconnect to my company network - but now the tracert problem is back again.

Again, tracert worked properly for months with this same vpn client installed until about 2 weeks ago.  I don't know what caused it but all I can definitively say is that its related to the VPN client.

Please help...I really need traceroute working...but at the same time, its useless to me if I can't VPN into my company.  :-P

[rolinger1]

FYI...other things to note:

1) Standard DNS lookups continue to work

2) Ping continued to work

3) General internet browsing worked

4) connecting to other windows workstations continued to work

...everything related to networking still seemed to work just fine.  The ONLY thing I could see that wasn't working right was tracert.exe - I even downloaded other 3rd party traceroute apps (ftrace.exe) and like tracert.exe, they too would NOT work.

[rolinger1]

On a side note, I methodically went through each step.

1) uninstalled cisco vpn client and rebooted

2) traceroute still didn't work, then I reset the tcp/ip stack again and rebooted.

3) traceroute now worked, rebooted again

4) traceroute continued to work, so I reinstalled the Cisco VPN client

5) after install of client but before required reboot, traceroute no longer worked.

6) after reboot (to complete vpn install), traceroute continued not to work.