Why does my VPN do this?

[Vlad_M]

I need to constantly be connected to my work via VPN while I am at home. The connection works well, a few times a day the connection will drop and I will have to reconnect. This is in itself not so much of a problem, but here's the catch: When I want to reconnect, it gets stuck at "Verifying username and password". The connection attempts will always get stuck on this untill I reset the ADSL router, and then it's back to normal.

Is it something on my side or something server side causing this?

 

[|tera|]

Which router do you reset? The router you connect to or from?

 

[proff]

Also check your DNS address on your router - some VPN's do not like public DNS server addresses - if your work has a DNS server, enter that DNS and try again.

Proff

 

[fskmh]

Also check your DNS address on your router - some VPN's do not like public DNS server addresses - if your work has a DNS server, enter that DNS and try again.

Proff

Does that include OpenDNS?

 

[JayM]

Routers need to keep a special mapping for PPTP connections to know which internal host to send the VPN traffic to, because it's not just a single TCP port being used. When you get disconnected, the mapping is probably staying active, and often cheap soho routers only support a single PPTP connection. This explains why the router needs a reboot to make it work again.

It doesn't explain why you're getting disconnected though - that could be the VPN server, your Internet connection or your work's Internet connection.