VPN over Orange GPRS - Any success out there?

[Guest garf_d]

Not strictly an SPV issue I know but here goes:

Up until my SPV stopped playing nicely with my laptop (another story) I was having a go at getting a PPTP/GRE based VPN connection (the type commonly used by RAS under NT/2000 Server) going between my laptop and the corporate VPN gateway. However the connection was failing at some after the PPTP authentication phase completed before the GRE tunnel was formed.

Unfortunatly the address range being used by Orange inside the GPRS network appears to be similar to that being used behind our gateway (172.16.0.0/12) which is obviously not helping matters, but I'm lothed to start rearranging addresses inside the VPN gateway if there are other more fundamental reasons for it not working - say Orange GPRS not supporting GRE/IP. Sadly any mention of VPN to the people on the Wirefree support line throws into a point blank 'We do not support VPN' speech, they refuse to even tell me which (if any) VPN protocols the network is capable of carrying or if any have been deliberately blocked.

So I'm asking you guys:

Have any of you been successful in using VPN solutions over Orange GPRS?

If so, which products (i.e. Windows VPN or Cisco etc.) and/or which protocols did they use (i.e. PPTP or IPSec) if you know?

Alternatively, have any of you had more helpful input from Orange on this topic?

I find it rediculous that Orange refuse to support VPN given that it is the main technology business customers use for secure remote access to their networks, while one of the key selling points to business of GPRS is to give us faster access to our networks. It makes no sense on Orange's part not to support it, in fact I suspect it would has a negative effect on their GPRS take up amongst business if they were to publicly state this information in their GPRS literature.

Gareth

[Guest pupton]

I have been trying to find a solution to a problem that I have also discovered with Orange's GPRS service.

Just like you have discovered, the problems start just after authentication. Having done some diagnostics, I can see that the origination IP address where the GPRS service leaves Oranges private network can change at regular intervals thus causing troubles for VPN's and other services relying on security/IP authentication.

I have been in contact with Orange's GPRS network team before Xmas about this and they have confirmed that this is a problem that they are aware of and plan to have a fix in place before the end of G1 2003.

So to round this posting up, the GPRS netowrk services provided by Orange use load balancing on the public face so the public IP address allocated for the GPRS session can change at any point. That will render many VPN & security solution's useless unti lthe fix is applied by Orange. :cry:

[Guest rico12345]

Hi Friends, There is a solution from Check Point called SecureClient for Pocket-PC (Microsoft) This VPN-Client should also work with smartphone. Actually no idee how to install that application. More under: http://www.checkpoint.com/press/2002/wince031402.html

[Guest pupton]

You wont be able to install it on the SPV due to the lack of certification :D

[Guest ratbert]

and secureremote is an ipsec client, not a pptp one.

[Guest TZed9]

he he he

The troubles are caused by ports from what I undersdtand. The APN's of

orangeinternet

orangewap

have ports only open for web/pop traffic. A vpn would use different ports.

Orange have done this to create revenue. The product 'GPRS buisness LAN' will give you a unique APN with all the ports you's care to employ.

Does this explain? :twisted: