work VPN problem

[goingonholiday]

Hi, I sometimes connect my work laptop via VPN to check emails etc.  It's worked fine for years but they have decided to upgrade the BTMobile Express client we use and have changed from routers I'd never heard to to Cisco and now it doesn't work!

I've got it working at a broadband connection they have at work but when I connect at home, nothing, ring the BT helpdesk and they can't see me trying to connect at their end so nothing they can do. 

Wireless isn't enabled on the laptop, I'm connected to the router with an ethernet cable.  I've checked the laptop is connected to the router by looking at the DHCP Client list on the router and the work laptop shows up there (it's a Belkin router).  I've also tried another laptop connecting by the ethernet cable and all is well.

Can anyone suggest anything else I can look at to resolve this?  Work have said the new set-up doesn't work with AOL (don't know why though) - any ideas much appreciated!

Thanks

[Rik]

Sorry, no ideas myself, but stick around and an expert will be along shortly.

[Steve]

My guess and it is a guess is that its a port forwarding issue on the firewall.

[goingonholiday]

My guess and it is a guess is that its a port forwarding issue on the firewall.

Thanks for the quick reply don't really know what that means but anything I can check / do?

[Steve]

Can you connect the laptop with the DMZ option on your particular router this takes it out of the router's firewall protection, you could also trying cycling windows firewall to see if that is blocking the connection. Lastly which VPN client are you using as  you should be able to find some information regarding router setup.

[goingonholiday]

Can you connect the laptop with the DMZ option on your particular router this takes it out of the router's firewall protection, you could also trying cycling windows firewall to see if that is blocking the connection. Lastly which VPN client are you using as  you should be able to find some information regarding router setup.

Thanks for this, I did the DMZ option and it didn't make any difference.  The laptop is pretty locked down and windows firewall isn't enabled, says it's using Domain settings.

What do you mean by VPN Client, on my laptop I use BTMobileXpress.

Thanks

[Steve]

Is UPNP enabled on the router? I'll try and gen up on BT MobileXpress and see if I can suggest any other solutions

[Glenn]

On JohnH's VPN problem, it was down to a proxy issue, is there one set on your laptop?

[goingonholiday]

On JohnH's VPN problem, it was down to a proxy issue, is there one set on your laptop?

UNPN wasn't set, I've not set it and tried again - no change still won't connect.

If I open up a command prompt ipconfig tells me I'm connected and I can ping other computers on the network and bbc.co.uk and get a response so it appears to just be the VPN that's the problem.

Stupid question coming now, how do I tell if a proxy is set?

Thanks

[Glenn]

For Windows, in Control Panel, click Internet Options>Connections>LAN settings

Make a note of any settings before making changes.

[goingonholiday]

For Windows, in Control Panel, click Internet Options>Connections>LAN settings

Make a note of any settings before making changes.

Checked that (just had a lack of internet connection for half an hour hence the delay) and it is using a proxy but it says in brackets next to the setting that it doesn't apply to VPN - and I don't have access to alter it.  If I can connect via a different connection would that make a difference anyway?

Thanks

[goingonholiday]

problem solved, I did a firmware upgrade on the router and everything worked.  Thanks for all your help.

[Steve]

Excellent news