A great PPTP stumper!

I have a customer running SBS 2003. They are using PPTP connections over
broadband to connect remotely to their server and everything is working well.
The server is connected to the Internet with DSL (500k to 750K) using the
built in firewall with SBS and two NICS, one for the WAN side and one for the
LAN side. The users that connect using PPTP that are working well are
connecting via cable Internet or DSL links 384K and under. However, one of
the remote users must use StarBand Satellite service to connect to the
Internet because of the abscence of DSL or Cable in their area. StarBand
guarantees a minimum of 150k connectivity. This users Internet access for
browsing and downloading performs well for the speed of the line. A line
speed test from the Internet says this user is getting an average of 500k
bandwith. When I try the PPTP connection to the same SBS Server(that the
other users have no trouble with) I can connect and start to transmit data
but the connection is always lost within 5 minutes. I enabled logging of the
RAS server and captured some logs of the user that are not having problems
and compared them to the user that is having the problem. The only difference
between them is the length of time that they stay connected.
The Acct-Terminate-Cause field is User-Request 1 in all cases, both with the
users that are not having the problem and the user that is having the
problem. I have a theroy that the satellite Internet access is too slow to
maintain the PPTP connection but the logs do not seem to prove this out. I
would expect to see the Acct-Terminate-Cause be something different on the
problem users trace. It looks as if the client side of the connection
requests the connection to terminate. Is there a registy setting that could
make the server or in this case the client more tolerant of a slow
connection? Anyone have any thoughts?

--
Cletus A. Scalo
Total Technology Integration, Inc.
www.ttintegrate.com

Cletus,

I have users that connect to the internet via 56k dial-up, then PPTP to a
SnapGear router. It's really slow, but it works. I would reconsider your
slow connection theory & look elsewhere. Wish I could be of more help.

Cleve S.

"Cletus Scalo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4B4CEE02-298B-4CF0-92EA-(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have a customer running SBS 2003. They are using PPTP connections over
> broadband to connect remotely to their server and everything is working
well.
> The server is connected to the Internet with DSL (500k to 750K) using the
> built in firewall with SBS and two NICS, one for the WAN side and one for
the
> LAN side. The users that connect using PPTP that are working well are
> connecting via cable Internet or DSL links 384K and under. However, one of
> the remote users must use StarBand Satellite service to connect to the
> Internet because of the abscence of DSL or Cable in their area. StarBand
> guarantees a minimum of 150k connectivity. This users Internet access for
> browsing and downloading performs well for the speed of the line. A line
> speed test from the Internet says this user is getting an average of 500k
> bandwith. When I try the PPTP connection to the same SBS Server(that the
> other users have no trouble with) I can connect and start to transmit data
> but the connection is always lost within 5 minutes. I enabled logging of
the
> RAS server and captured some logs of the user that are not having problems
> and compared them to the user that is having the problem. The only
difference
> between them is the length of time that they stay connected.
> The Acct-Terminate-Cause field is User-Request 1 in all cases, both with
the
> users that are not having the problem and the user that is having the
> problem. I have a theroy that the satellite Internet access is too slow to
> maintain the PPTP connection but the logs do not seem to prove this out. I
> would expect to see the Acct-Terminate-Cause be something different on the
> problem users trace. It looks as if the client side of the connection
> requests the connection to terminate. Is there a registy setting that
could
> make the server or in this case the client more tolerant of a slow
> connection? Anyone have any thoughts?
>
> --
> Cletus A. Scalo
> Total Technology Integration, Inc.
> www.ttintegrate.com

The problem with satellite connections isn't so much the bandwidth, but
the latency. Response times can be pretty slow. My guess is that this is
causing something to time out and let the connection drop.

"Cleve S." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:e%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Cletus,
>
> I have users that connect to the internet via 56k dial-up, then PPTP to a
> SnapGear router. It's really slow, but it works. I would reconsider your
> slow connection theory & look elsewhere. Wish I could be of more help.
>
> Cleve S.
>
> "Cletus Scalo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:4B4CEE02-298B-4CF0-92EA-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I have a customer running SBS 2003. They are using PPTP connections over
>> broadband to connect remotely to their server and everything is working
> well.
>> The server is connected to the Internet with DSL (500k to 750K) using the
>> built in firewall with SBS and two NICS, one for the WAN side and one for
> the
>> LAN side. The users that connect using PPTP that are working well are
>> connecting via cable Internet or DSL links 384K and under. However, one
>> of
>> the remote users must use StarBand Satellite service to connect to the
>> Internet because of the abscence of DSL or Cable in their area. StarBand
>> guarantees a minimum of 150k connectivity. This users Internet access for
>> browsing and downloading performs well for the speed of the line. A line
>> speed test from the Internet says this user is getting an average of 500k
>> bandwith. When I try the PPTP connection to the same SBS Server(that the
>> other users have no trouble with) I can connect and start to transmit
>> data
>> but the connection is always lost within 5 minutes. I enabled logging of
> the
>> RAS server and captured some logs of the user that are not having
>> problems
>> and compared them to the user that is having the problem. The only
> difference
>> between them is the length of time that they stay connected.
>> The Acct-Terminate-Cause field is User-Request 1 in all cases, both with
> the
>> users that are not having the problem and the user that is having the
>> problem. I have a theroy that the satellite Internet access is too slow
>> to
>> maintain the PPTP connection but the logs do not seem to prove this out.
>> I
>> would expect to see the Acct-Terminate-Cause be something different on
>> the
>> problem users trace. It looks as if the client side of the connection
>> requests the connection to terminate. Is there a registy setting that
> could
>> make the server or in this case the client more tolerant of a slow
>> connection? Anyone have any thoughts?
>>
>> --
>> Cletus A. Scalo
>> Total Technology Integration, Inc.
>> www.ttintegrate.com
>
>

Yes Bill, I think you are right. Thank you.

And thank you Cleve!

"Bill Grant" wrote:

> The problem with satellite connections isn't so much the bandwidth, but
> the latency. Response times can be pretty slow. My guess is that this is
> causing something to time out and let the connection drop.
>
> "Cleve S." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:e%(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Cletus,
> >
> > I have users that connect to the internet via 56k dial-up, then PPTP to a
> > SnapGear router. It's really slow, but it works. I would reconsider your
> > slow connection theory & look elsewhere. Wish I could be of more help.
> >
> > Cleve S.
> >
> > "Cletus Scalo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:4B4CEE02-298B-4CF0-92EA-(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> I have a customer running SBS 2003. They are using PPTP connections over
> >> broadband to connect remotely to their server and everything is working
> > well.
> >> The server is connected to the Internet with DSL (500k to 750K) using the
> >> built in firewall with SBS and two NICS, one for the WAN side and one for
> > the
> >> LAN side. The users that connect using PPTP that are working well are
> >> connecting via cable Internet or DSL links 384K and under. However, one
> >> of
> >> the remote users must use StarBand Satellite service to connect to the
> >> Internet because of the abscence of DSL or Cable in their area. StarBand
> >> guarantees a minimum of 150k connectivity. This users Internet access for
> >> browsing and downloading performs well for the speed of the line. A line
> >> speed test from the Internet says this user is getting an average of 500k
> >> bandwith. When I try the PPTP connection to the same SBS Server(that the
> >> other users have no trouble with) I can connect and start to transmit
> >> data
> >> but the connection is always lost within 5 minutes. I enabled logging of
> > the
> >> RAS server and captured some logs of the user that are not having
> >> problems
> >> and compared them to the user that is having the problem. The only
> > difference
> >> between them is the length of time that they stay connected.
> >> The Acct-Terminate-Cause field is User-Request 1 in all cases, both with
> > the
> >> users that are not having the problem and the user that is having the
> >> problem. I have a theroy that the satellite Internet access is too slow
> >> to
> >> maintain the PPTP connection but the logs do not seem to prove this out.
> >> I
> >> would expect to see the Acct-Terminate-Cause be something different on
> >> the
> >> problem users trace. It looks as if the client side of the connection
> >> requests the connection to terminate. Is there a registy setting that
> > could
> >> make the server or in this case the client more tolerant of a slow
> >> connection? Anyone have any thoughts?
> >>
> >> --
> >> Cletus A. Scalo
> >> Total Technology Integration, Inc.
> >> www.ttintegrate.com
> >
> >
>
>
>