Cisco VPN software error

gizmo1990 · 22 Jun 2010 at 12:57

I thought I'd put this here rather than Software as it seemed more appropriate?

I've been trying to get my girlfriend setup on her netbook with her companies vpn but I'm getting an error each time, Cisco VPN Client: Reason 429: Unable to resolve server address

Are there any network gurus out there that are able to help me troubleshoot this? I'm a complete novice at this and I haven't much of a clue how to solve it. I've checked the net but there's a heck of a lot of gibberish that I really don't understand as it's not my field.

Any advice greatly appreicated.

paradigm · 22 Jun 2010 at 13:00

I'd say the error is pretty much descriptive enough.

The Cisco VPN software client cannot connect to the given hostname.

Now the reason for this could be a multitude of things. Firstly, is the connection endpoint configured in the client an IP address or a hostname? If the latter, can you get DNS resolution of the hostname if you say, ping it from CMD?

What ISP is she with? Some ISPs (although few and far between) block VPN traffic.

gizmo1990 · 22 Jun 2010 at 13:14

Thanks for the reply paradigm.

Here's what the whole popup says:
Secure VPN connection terminated locally by client
Reason 429:Unable to resolve server address

I'm actually overseas at the moment so with a foreign provider. I don't think they block vpn traffic though as p2p tworks fine.. or would I be wrong in assuming this?

Ok this is probably going to sound dumb but how do I ping the hostname?

gizmo1990 · 22 Jun 2010 at 13:31

Sorry forgot to mention I think the endpoint is configured in the client as a hostname, ie it says under host: vpn.blahblah.com

So I've opened up a cmd and typed ping vpn.blahblah.com and got the following,

Ping request could not find host vpn.blahblah.com Please check the name and try again

What does this mean?

paradigm · 22 Jun 2010 at 13:37

That would indicate that whatever DNS server you are using where you are has no idea where vpn.blahblah.tld is, and as such can't report an IP address with which to connect to.

I'd manually add some external DNS servers (such as google's DNS Server IP address: 8.8.8.8) to your network connection, and see if that resolves the issue.

gizmo1990 · 22 Jun 2010 at 13:50

I don't suppose you'd mind telling me how to manually add some external DNS servers would you? I have no idea how to go about that.

I'm using windows 7.

paradigm · 22 Jun 2010 at 14:02

Open Control Panel and click on "View network status and tasks" under the "Network and Internet" section.

Click on "Change adapter settings" down the left hand side.

Find the network connection you are connected with, either Local Area Connection or Wireless Network Connection, and right-click it, then click on Properties.

Find "Internet protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click it, then click on the "Properties" button.

Click on the "Advanced" button.

Click on the DNS tab at the top, and then on the first "Add" button. From here you can type the IP address of a DNS server (Google's free one for example is 8.8.8.8)

gizmo1990 · 22 Jun 2010 at 14:20

Thanks very much for going to the trouble of doing that.

Ok, I've added googles dns but I'm still getting the same result? Any idea what this points to?

CliffyG · 23 Jun 2010 at 13:31

Try getting the IP from your girlfriends work rather than the hostname.

Chief Wiggum · 23 Jun 2010 at 17:55

Stupid question, but is this going to be allowed by the companies IT department? We're pretty strict on what can connect to us, so my own laptop / net book would be a no go.
If it's their laptop - no problem but generally companies have an IT policy so make sure your not falling foul of this. If it's their laptop - get them to fix it, it really bugs me as an engineer when you get "oh my it friend tried to fix this and it only broke it more" plus then you've got some comeback when it doesn't get fixed within an SLA.
Also do you have the PCF file from them? If not your going to need the group name and the key to connect before it prompts for username password (if using xauth) - though this will depend in the backend setup.

In this instance (for your original question) can you get to other websites and things from that machine ok? If not that's going to be a good place to start. If that's working ok, go to dnsstuff you should be able to lookup an ip address from a hostname on there. If it doesn't show, you either got the wrong name or the company removed it from dns. If you get an ip, try adding that instead and see how you go.