mylan apn - how should it function?

[petesnhs]

Hi

I have a question regarding the mylan apn.

When making a mobile broadband connection to mylan apn, should the user then be able accesss internet / web pages (as one would if using the internet apn)? Ie. Is mylan just same as internet, but with added VPN capabilities / security?

I ask because, when using a contract sim in my laptop, if I connect to the internet apn I get access to internet as you'd expect.

If I connect using the mylan apn (and yes mylan has been enabled by vodafone) I can't access internet / webpages - it'll take 3 minutes to load google page, if it doesn't ime out that is!?!?!??

If I then connect to a vpn (a BT N3 vpn in my case, to access nhs resources) I can then access internet / webpages (through the N3 vpn network I'm guessing!?!?!).

So is the mylan apn acting as it should, or should it allow internet access without a vpn connection?

Thanks in advance for any input / info

Pete

[petesnhs]

Hi Neil

we're not using dongles.

We're using laptops with built in sim slot / 3G mobile 'modems'.

And as I mentioned, the 3G connection 'seems' solid and stable, but its not maintaining a solid / stable vpn connection to the BT N3 network (whether we use internet or mylan apn).

If I use a wifi connection to establish the vpn, then all is great - so, to my mind, all points to the vodafone 3G network.

Cheers

Pete

[petesnhs]

Okay! For info / others who might read this thread:

I tested our vodafone 3G connection with a different vpn and got a solid & stable connection.

Thus my issue seems to be restricted to a problem with the interface between vodafone and the N3 vpn in particular.

Looking at the logging info in the vpn client - the disconnects are due to the client closing the connection because the peer hadn't responded.

Strange as I can see heartbeat packets coming & going constantly; however, I do see that these packet numbers don't match / aren't recieved back in the order in which the client expects them. The packets are UDP!

So I do a google trawl and find a suggestion to set a ForceKeepAlive flag in the vpn client profile. I try this and it doesn't work!

The N3 vpn is still unstable & disconnects frequently.

I try another trawl and see reference to a setting in the vpn client options for 'Peer Response Timeout'. I set this to the max allowed value of 480.
This appears to give a stable vpn connection to N3 over vodafone 3G using the mylan apn.

I still need conformation of this from users in the field, but it's working solidly at my desk.

Hope this helps someone else out there.

Pete

[Neil_Brown]

Thanks for the update, Pete — glad to hear that you've got it working, at least in your test environment.

For what it's worth, I'm using an L2TP VPN, connected to a Mac server.

[petesnhs]

If so could you respond to the questions I've asked here:

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Mobile-Broadband/mylan-apn-how-should-it-function/td-p/1190081

Cheers

Pete