VPN error 868 even when using fixed IP

Question

Finally I decided to give this forum a try. Googling only gives me instructions on how to configure DNS, but that is not very helpful.

I am tasked with finding why we have so many issues with VPN. I have eliminated one already and, users being users, many were not even VPN problems. But in the process of finding out how often problems occur, I started collecting all related events.

The I thought I found a big cause: on average, over 10% of the connection attempt fail with an 868 error. So it is a DNS issue (as is so often the case ;-) ). But hey, this cannot be: we already put the hostname in the hosts file (and tested that it is actually used by entering an invalid value). I even read other people using configurations with hard-coded IP addresses in them and even they are getting 868 errors. And when te connection is retried again a few seconds later, it mostly is successful which rules out wrong DNS settings even more.

Now, the RAS related errors are a pain anyway, some being not even documented. But 868 is. There can only be two causes for this:

1. A hostname that cannot be resolved
2. Sub-standard programming in the VPN client software

And I ruled out #1 already. If you cannot trust the error codes, how are you to resolve the issues.

Anyone that ran into this find a solution?

Answer 1

Hello Jan, I'm here to help with your problem.

If you are getting an 868 error even though you are using a Fixed IP address, I also think the following two reasons cause it:

• Network error
• VPN client software bug

What VPN client software are you using? If you have support for VPN client software, I recommend you ask them.

Best regards,

Yu

Answer 2

Hello,

Based on your description, it seems that you have eliminated the DNS problem. But there is another possible reason that a firewall or antivirus software is blocking the VPN connection. Please check if any firewall or antivirus software is blocking the VPN connection and temporarily disable them to see if the problem persists.

Regards,

Zunhui