05-19-2010, 08:17 AM

Hi all, thanks for taking time to read my post.

I have searched the FAQ's and other forums without finding my exact situation, so I am hoping this new thread will come across your desk and you might be able to help me.

In short, I have successfully configured my Mac's native VPN to connect to a Cisco service in various scenarios, but there is one scenario which I am unable to do so. I'll summarize each scenario, then provide some high level details, and the final scenario will be where I need your help - thanks!

Vitals:
MacBook Pro i5, OS 10.6.3, 8 GB ram, 500 GB storage
VMWare Fusion 3.0.2
VM#1 WinXP SP2
VM#2 Ubuntu 10.4

Scenario #0) Using corporate network (not VPN)
- Just a baseline, but wanted to illustrate this scenario works as expected
- Works: Employer MS Exchange, Intranet, Internet for Mac, XP, and Ubuntu
- Doesn't work: n/a
Scenario #1) Using VPN on home WiFi network
- Works: VPN for Employer MS Exchange, Intranet, Internet for Mac, XP, and Ubuntu
- Doesn't work: n/a
Scenario #2) Using VPN on public WiFi (starbucks, library, etc.)
- Works: VPN for Employer MS Exchange, Intranet, Internet for Mac, XP, and Ubuntu
- Doesn't work: n/a
Scenario #3) Using VPN on customer LAN
- Works: VPN on XP and Ubuntu only - not *Mac* (includes Employer MS Exchange, Intranet, Internet)
- Doesn't work: VPN on Mac (successfully connects using secureID, but all network traffic is stopped)

It is this last scenario that has me most perplexed. I am a contractor and travel to customer sites for work. I am using my MBP connected to the customer's LAN, but do not have any windows authentication - just a typical live dynamic IP, nothing special that I know of.

While connected to my customer's LAN, I can access their MS Exchange email server, customer's intranet, internet, basically full connectivity. When I connect to my employer's VPN on Mac, I cease all network connectivity even tho the Mac VPN status shows connected.

The peculiar thing is my virtual machine on Win XP. I can use the Cisco VPN on XP and connect while on the same customer LAN. Using VMWare Fusion, my WinXP VM is pretty typical and uses a 'bridged' network connection to my Mac host. From the XP VM, connected to VPN (MAC host is *not* connected to VPN) I can access my employer's MS Exchange, Intranet, and Internet as expected.

And, under Scenario #1 & #2 above, my Mac VPN connection does work as expected in other physical locations.

I realize there are a million pieces to this puzzle and I couldn't provide all the specific details you may need. So, if you can help me pinpoint the problem by focusing my search in specific Mac VPN configuration areas, I will gladly provide more details to this thread - I just didn't quite know where to look!

Thanks in advance to assisting me with this problem.

Kevin

05-19-2010, 08:33 AM

Are the network addresses the same?

If your customer's LAN is "192.168.4.0" and your company also uses "192.168.4.0", you might not be able to get your Mac on the VPN, as the computer won't know where to send the packets to. The bridged virtual machine network might be able to get around that issue though, since it probably uses a different virtual network adapter...