VPN Access

jannievanzyl said:
Are you sure they switched over properly? You need the SIM to be provisioned by Vodacom and then you need to change the APN setting on his device.

Did you do both? What IP do you get with ipconfig.
Click to expand...

Ok, I will have to get the notebook back in here.
Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to do some proper testing and get all the relevant info for you.
 
Same problem here - cannot get a VPN connection from a 41.13.x.x IP address. Gauteng.
 
Hi Guys

It's 3 AM, I need to do support and I'm so frustrated by this issue.

No watter what connection I dial from my Vodacom 3G, the authentication always fails.

I have 6+ connections, including connections to ADSL lines, TDIS lines, Unrestricted APN 3G's (also on Vodacom), some lines use Afrihost, some Telkom, some XDSL.

No matter what combination I try, I always fail at authentication!

I use normal pptp connections in most cases, but besides that, I know for a fact that these VPN's are up and running, my colleagues can all connect, but I cannot.

My Vodacom 3G is due for an upgrade and I'm seriously considering moving to another network, any advice? Which networks are unaffected by this Natting issue?

Regards

Oh, and btw, my IP is 10.184.44.x
 
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I can confirm that switching over to the internetvpn APN has resolved our problem (for the one sim that I am testing)
Will be switching the rest of the company over to the new APN setting.

The APN setting was not set on the software side, after I change it I only got 41.x.x.x IP addresses and each time I was able to connect to the VPN.

Thanks jannievanzyl for the assistance.
 
Matthysdt said:
My Vodacom 3G is due for an upgrade and I'm seriously considering moving to another network, any advice?
Click to expand...
Use the 'internetvpn' APN as suggested above and stick with Vodacom.
Matthysdt said:
Which networks are unaffected by this Natting issue?
Click to expand...
They may not have NAT issues now, but they have routing problems, blocked ports, connections being closed, etc.
At least Vodacom care about this kind of stuff and will fix it.
 
Thanks

I changed my APN on the VMB software and now it won't connect at all.
I get the following error:
Mobile connection not possible.
Ensure that no other applications are using your selected device, and try again in a short while.

I restarted my PC, same error.

I never use VMB anyway, I use the Windows 7 utility in the system tray to connect my internet. How do I change the APN for that connection? (I assume it didn't change along with the VMB APN since that connection method still works and still doesn't allow VPN connections.)

Edit: On the line with Vodacom CC at the moment to activate the internetvpn APN, they have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, holding and listening to music, hopefully they can help me without much trouble.

Update: Still on the line, they told me the internetvpn APN was discontinued a long time ago. I told them it was reintroced, holding again....

Update: They logged a ticket with advanced data support, hope I don't have to go through this much trouble for all our SIM cards, it'll take me a month.
 
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Whoever said it's JHB only is talking rubbish, I just connected on my wifes Vodacom 3G in Parklands, Cape Town and got the following.

C:\Users\Administrator\>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration


PPP adapter Vodafone Mobile Broadband:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.250.150.8
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0

Vodacom, what is being done about this?
 
Juggy said:
Whoever said it's JHB only is talking rubbish, I just connected on my wifes Vodacom 3G in Parklands, Cape Town and got the following.

C:\Users\Administrator\>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration


PPP adapter Vodafone Mobile Broadband:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.250.150.8
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0

Vodacom, what is being done about this?
Click to expand...

All the answers above in this thread.
 
ginggs said:
Are you referring to this?

That was written nearly three weeks ago. Most likely NAT has been implemented in Cape Town since then.
Click to expand...

I'd say it's a definite, would've been nice if someone said something seeing as it's a reported issue and this thread deals with it specifically or am I the only one that feels we should be made aware?
 
Juggy said:
Yes, the solution is in the thread. Why the lie though?
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What lie?

Juggy said:
I'd say it's a definite, would've been nice if someone said something seeing as it's a reported issue and this thread deals with it specifically or am I the only one that feels we should be made aware?
Click to expand...

Firstly, the IP address you posted is not one of our public NAT'ed IP's. You're clearly getting this from somewhere else. Maybe a corporate APN?

Secondly, a number of people have posted above (including myself) that if you want to use a VPN service switch to the InternetVPN APN.

So please consider yourself made aware. Yet again.

BTW, NAT is not active in Cpt yet. But it will be, so start switching to the InternetVPN so long if you need to run a VPN.
 
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jannievanzyl said:
What lie?



Firstly, the IP address you posted is not one of our public NAT'ed IP's. You're clearly getting this from somewhere else. Maybe a corporate APN?

Secondly, a number of people have posted above (including myself) that if you want to use a VPN service switch to the InternetVPN APN.

So please consider yourself made aware. Yet again.
Click to expand...

It was a simple question, there is no need for the attitude. Fortunately for me I do not use Vodacom and never will, the fact of the matter is 1000's of people have been inconvenienced by this.
 
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Juggy said:
It was a simple question, there is no need for the attitude. Fortunately for me I do not use Vodacom and never will, the fact of the matter is 1000's of people have been inconvenienced by this.
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Firstly, you still have not clarified where I lied.

Secondly, you have not clarified how you got this IP, as it did not come from Vodacom.
 
I think you need to answer my question first and that was what is Vodacom doing to resolve this. It wasn't "what can Vodacom inconvenience the customer into doing". Essentially we're fixing it ourselves.

1. We need to call your call centre and wait in queues for agents that may or may not know if the internetVPN APN is still available
2. We then need to convince them it is
3. We need to reconfigure our software to use said APN

Can you please use technology to do this automatically.

1. Log when a SIM tries to connect to a VPN service
2. Automatically give them a public IP the next time they connect.

As the service provider one would expect you to conyinue providing the service you have as you have provided it.

We have roughly 2000 Vodacom 3G users in our business of which approximately half connect to our VPN server at some point or other. Do you see where I'm going with this? A support nightmare.
 
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What I don't understand is how come my R250 ADSL modem allows VPN passthru, but yet the Vodacom network which I'm sure invests millions in their NAT'd solution and firewall can not allow VPN passthru.
 
I was contacted by Vodacom Advanced Data Support late Friday afternoon and they informed me that the APN was activated. I tested it and it works.

They said that any one may email any number of SIM numbers to [email protected] and request the activation of the internetvpn APN. You don't need to provide proof of ownership of the SIM cards since there are no additional security risks involved in using this APN (unlike the unrestricted APN).

Don't bother calling 111 or 155, just send the email.

Three things I would like to know:
1. Will Vodacom inform us in some public channel well in advance of cancelling this internetvpn APN? (We have 100+ sim cards switched over to this APN, we'll need a warning if they decide to once again cancel this APN).
2. Will this APN have enough available IP's for the number of people swithing to it?
3. Will Vodacom please, in future, better communicate these kind of problems and not leave us to figure it out for ourselves. The least they could have done was send SMS's/Email notifications informing everyone of the problem and solution.
 
warwickw said:
What I don't understand is how come my R250 ADSL modem allows VPN passthru, but yet the Vodacom network which I'm sure invests millions in their NAT'd solution and firewall can not allow VPN passthru.
Click to expand...

I think it may have something to do with the ammount of private IP's they NAT to one public although I may be wrong. I do remember that years ago with cheap ADSL modem/routers you could only have one VPN tunnel from the private IP range passed through your ADSL modem. Maybe that is the problem.
 
Juggy said:
I think you need to answer my question first and that was what is Vodacom doing to resolve this. It wasn't "what can Vodacom inconvenience the customer into doing". Essentially we're fixing it ourselves.

1. We need to call your call centre and wait in queues for agents that may or may not know if the internetVPN APN is still available
2. We then need to convince them it is
3. We need to reconfigure our software to use said APN

Can you please use technology to do this automatically.

1. Log when a SIM tries to connect to a VPN service
2. Automatically give them a public IP the next time they connect.

As the service provider one would expect you to conyinue providing the service you have as you have provided it.

We have roughly 2000 Vodacom 3G users in our business of which approximately half connect to our VPN server at some point or other. Do you see where I'm going with this? A support nightmare.
Click to expand...

Can I *respectfully* request you read up on the problem with IPv4 and why this is not a Vodacom issue but rather an industry one.

You will then see that Vodacom IS actually doing something to resolve this.

If you have 2000 Vodacom 3G users, it makes much more sense to put them on a corporate APN where you have much better control over many more factors. The internet APN is really designed for typical non-business users and thus very few of them use VPNs.

If you've got a list of 2000 MSISDNs that must be provisioned, rather e-mail the list to VD and can run a batch job.
 
Matthysdt said:
I was contacted by Vodacom Advanced Data Support late Friday afternoon and they informed me that the APN was activated. I tested it and it works.

They said that any one may email any number of SIM numbers to [email protected] and request the activation of the internetvpn APN. You don't need to provide proof of ownership of the SIM cards since there are no additional security risks involved in using this APN (unlike the unrestricted APN).

Don't bother calling 111 or 155, just send the email.

Three things I would like to know:
1. Will Vodacom inform us in some public channel well in advance of cancelling this internetvpn APN? (We have 100+ sim cards switched over to this APN, we'll need a warning if they decide to once again cancel this APN).
2. Will this APN have enough available IP's for the number of people swithing to it?
3. Will Vodacom please, in future, better communicate these kind of problems and not leave us to figure it out for ourselves. The least they could have done was send SMS's/Email notifications informing everyone of the problem and solution.
Click to expand...

Yes to all.

We did stuff up the communications on this, apologies for that. The relevant people have been quartered and drawn, though - in their defense - they only activated it on one of 9 systems to see the impact.
 
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