Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
1 Message
0
9646
June 23rd, 2004 22:00
Cisco VPN Client & Broadcom 1350 Wireless Card
I have an inspiron 9100 with a Broadcom 1350 wireless card. I've been trying unsuccessfully to get VPN Client (Cisco) to work correctly. When I had the computer running on a hard wired network VPN worked fine. As soon as I purchased a wireless router and tried to install VPN Client I got the blue screen of death. The Cisco VPN client installs some sort of network interface called Deterministic Network Enhancer. If you let this network interface bind to the wireless card you get the famous windows blue screen. Anybody have any ideas on what the problem could be. Dell techs seem to think that this is some sort of encryption problem in the router but I am a little unsure how this would cause this type of problem. I am more prone to believing there is some sort of compatibility issue yet the card boasts that it is Cisco compliant - go figure. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas I would sure appreciate the input.
No Events found!
WillowFaery
9 Posts
0
June 25th, 2004 14:00
What version of WIndows are you running? What does the Blue Screen error say? This would really help in making a judgment call with whats going on.
For the time being: VPN does sometimes have trouble with Micrsoft's built in vpn which you probably already know. The blue screen sounds like a conflict of software somewhere, but we'll be able to tell more if we knew what it said. I know for a fact that the card itself does work with Cisco, I've configured some to work with Cisco routers,etc and they work just fine, of course those networks didnt have vpn active on them.
There are times when VPN does conflict with wireless cards because of the mode of encryption thats in use.. so dont rule encryption out. Thats not to say it wont work, it may just mean getting a different solution to make the wireless card work with vpn.
oracle_jock
13 Posts
0
July 19th, 2004 17:00
Your question might be answered by this post I put up earlier.
First there was a thread on this at this forum link: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_network&message.id=18988&highlight=1350+intel+cisco+vpn#M18988
I'm assuming that you have Dell TrueMobile 1300 (or later models of TrueMobile) WiFi Mini PCI in the laptops. TM 1300 WiFi is actually made by Broadcom and rebranded for Dell. According to people on the thread I mentioned earlier, Broadcom doesn't follow technical standards closely so it causes Cisco VPN client to break. In my experience with TM 1300 in D600 XP Pro, wireless connection via TM 1300 works perfectly fine via any WiFi AP or Router, but when I open Cisco VPN client(VPN 5000 Client 5.2.3 3DES, old and EOF vpn box but no $ to upgrade) via WiFi I lose both internet/VPN connection in about 10 minutes or so. As soon as I close the VPN client, internet connection is established again immediately. I used to reopen Cisco VPN connection every 10 minutes to my office to work on servers and also practice on linux box etc I set up at work but it got very old very quickly. I initially thought the problem was caused by my netgear MR314 Wireless Router so I upgraded its firmware. I also tried upgrading TM 1300 drivers and bios firmware but still no go. I even tried Netgear WAG511 WiFi PCMCIA but same result after reading the forum thread. I didn't try opening Cisco VPN connection via Wired Ethernet since it's so much pain to get the wire out from the Netgear MR314.
I'd like to recommend these solutions:
1) Return the laptops. Or,
2) Replace the TM 1300 cards with INTEL PRO Wireless 2200 802.11b/g Mini PCI Card available at this Dell link for $32.95 plus tax/shiping
(http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?category_id=&k=&mnf=&brandid=&prst=&prEnd=&sku=430-0913&mnfsku=&SearchType=&Page=DellItemsProductListing.aspx&spagenum=2&Pageb4Search=&InStock=&items_per_page=50&orderby=&mnfname=DELL&brand=Latitude+D600&SubmitSearch=&image_flag=True&refurbished=&c=us&l=en&cs=04&iCompatid=157951)
See if you can make Dell pay for the replacement.
The product description page for Intel 2200 b/g card claims it's Cisco compatible with CCXv1 certification and I haven't found any complaint about it not working with Cisco VPN client on Dell forums so I believe it will work. But I suggest testing 1 laptop with it first before doing whole sale replacement.
BTW, someone on Dell forum wanted latest driver for Intel 2200 b/g at this link (http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si_wireless&message.id=6842&highlight=intel+2200+ibm#M6842
) and he was pointed to this url at ibm.com (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-54956)
Hope this helps.