Which distro works well with pptp vpn's?

hello932

Im using a 64 bit computer with ubuntu 10.04-the only problem i have is that the vpn on this does not work-the 'connection always times out'. What distro can use vpn's?

hello932

So no one on boards here uses pptp vpn on linux? *Sigh*

niallb

ubuntu and gnome network manager have pretty good VPN support.
I use it with openvpn particularly all the time.
Haven't used pptp in a long time :-)
A few questions:
How are you configuring your connection ?
What's at the other end?
Are you using the 64 bit or the 32 bit build of ubuntu ?
Have you used the same connection details succesfully with another system over the same internet connection ?

hello932

niallb wrote: »

ubuntu and gnome network manager have pretty good VPN support.
I use it with openvpn particularly all the time.
Haven't used pptp in a long time :-)
A few questions:
How are you configuring your connection ?
What's at the other end?
Are you using the 64 bit or the 32 bit build of ubuntu ?
Have you used the same connection details succesfully with another system over the same internet connection ?

i use TUVPN -seet their guides on http://www.tuvpn.com/tutorials.php?ln=en

im on a 64 bit laptop behind a wireless router. Ive made successful pptp connections using windows 7 but its on ubuntu 10.04 that i cant use pptp or openvpn (all on the same connection).

niallb

Hi.
I know you've got a 64 bit laptop, but you can run either 64 bit or 32 bit Ubuntu on it ?
There are cases where the 64 bit versions of software give different problems than their 32 bit counterparts.
How far through the tuvpn tutorial do you get?
Have you matched up all the checkboxes under the advanced settings ?

I've found openvpn more reliable once it's configured, and this agrees with the comments in the tuvpn forum.
The guy who opened the thread on 10.04 says that pptp worked well for him but he couldn't get openvpn to connect.
Have you tried getting in touch with him there?
The admins there suggest though that pptp causes a lot of problems and they'd prefer people to use openvpn.

There is a vpn bug in the last few versions of ubuntu, though it's not proven.
I have been affected by it myself, but worked around it simply by restarting the system after adding a new VPN connection.
This allowed authentication to proceed correctly.
Seemingly it can be triggered if you have a root shell open anywhere while you're setting up the connection.

I guess you've tried the openvpn tutorial for 10.04 too?
Have you seen an error mentioning "shared secrets" ?

hello932

niallb wrote: »

Hi.
I know you've got a 64 bit laptop, but you can run either 64 bit or 32 bit Ubuntu on it ?
There are cases where the 64 bit versions of software give different problems than their 32 bit counterparts.
How far through the tuvpn tutorial do you get?
Have you matched up all the checkboxes under the advanced settings ?

I've found openvpn more reliable once it's configured, and this agrees with the comments in the tuvpn forum.
The guy who opened the thread on 10.04 says that pptp worked well for him but he couldn't get openvpn to connect.
Have you tried getting in touch with him there?
The admins there suggest though that pptp causes a lot of problems and they'd prefer people to use openvpn.

There is a vpn bug in the last few versions of ubuntu, though it's not proven.
I have been affected by it myself, but worked around it simply by restarting the system after adding a new VPN connection.
This allowed authentication to proceed correctly.
Seemingly it can be triggered if you have a root shell open anywhere while you're setting up the connection.

I guess you've tried the openvpn tutorial for 10.04 too?
Have you seen an error mentioning "shared secrets" ?

im running 64bit ubuntu. Using the tuvpn tutorials ive tried using ubuntu 10.04 for a pptp connection and a open vpn connection. The configuration works but what happens is that 'the connection times out'. Sometimes i do get that 'no valid shared secrets'

eh the tuvpn forum? could you post me a link to that..i cant seem to find that on their main page.

niallb

If you get "no valid secrets", try removing all your VPN settings,
restarting your computer, and recreating the configuration from scratch.
Make sure you've no terminals running a root shell. or have any root apps open.
If you're asked for your password by anything else except the VPN setup,
that's likely to be the case.

After setting it up, restart the computer without connecting to your VPN.
This may just be voodoo, but it gets around the problem I've seen which
is bug no 360818 on launchpad.
There may be other material in that discussion which will help.
I'm subscribed to that bug, but I don't think the current discussion is much use to anyone. Doing that should remove the issue with the permissions.
I've successfully connected in both 9.10 and 10.04 by just restarting after setting up the VPN configuration.

The tuvpn discussion is at
http://www.tuvpn.com/forum.php?perma_link=159&id_forums=17

tuvpn forums could have been found by Google "tuvpn forums" or by clicking on the
Community -> Forums link on their frontpage.