VPN no longer working

NOLACop

Baseband Member
Messages
88
Location
New Orleans
I need some help with a VPN issue.

I have about 50 laptops deployed to officers in the field. They are not on the network at the office. Each laptop had a Verizon USB data card. I have several applications that the officers use daily. One application that is used most often needed to have all of its data routed over a specific IP address. All other data traffic was sent to the VPN at the office because all other applications were hosted on our office servers. I accomplished this by adding a route-- route add -p "ip address for specific application" mask 255.255.255.255 "static ip address of data card" metric 1.

This worked perfectly and all applications could be used at the same time. Recently I was forced to upgrade to Verizon MiFi data cards. All of the static Ip addresses are the same and each officer retained the same static IP as he had before. For some reason the routes no longer work. Now officers must manually start the VPN to do certain things and disconnect the VPN to use the static ip specific application.

I also had the printer configured on a TCP/IP port and officers were able to print to the network printer at the office. Now even with the VPN connected, the printer doesn't work. I can ping the printer IP but it gives error messages when printing.

My questions are:

1. Is there some reason the route will not work with a wifi connection vs. what I assume was a LAN connection?

2. Does anyone know of a better way to accomplish what I am describing or another way to program the route to make it work over wifi?

3. Is the printer issue a driver problem since its over wifi now? The printer is a Lanier LD528.

Thanks for any help.
 
1. This is probably due to how traffic is being routed. I know with mifi's its a different beast as they are broadcasting a single wireless signal to multiple devices, then the mifi is transmitting that information from it's self across the WAN. Was the IP address that was given before public or private? You may have to work with verizon to get them to statically route the specific packets over the mifi to your network OR you will have to use another VPN solution. I'm thinking MAYBE VPN is being routed goofy or blocked from the mifi. Verizon will know.
2. I can only think of using a VPN solution for this, we use Cisco Anyconnect without issue. If you are still using the same VPN client though i think this has more to do with routing protocol on the mifi than an issue with your VPN software.
3. What is the error message? Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the printer since this upgrade?
 
In my application of the MiFi, each device is only connecting to a single computer. The option to allow VPN passthrough is enabled. The VPN client we use is just our domain controller and it wasn't set up my me.

As far as a public or private IP address goes, I'm not sure I know what you mean. The static IP is what is given if I go to whatismyIP.com.

I will try and reinstall the printer to see if that works.
 
Ok I figured out the printing problem. I had set the static IP on the LAN for the printer in the scope of the DHCP and the server issued the printers IP address to another device. I changed the IP of the printer to one out of the DHCP scope and everything seems to work.

Now if I can only get the route to work.
 
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