Cisco VPN Client – AnyConnect: connection problems

cisco-vpn-client

I've used the Cisco CPN Client for a long time to connect to a VPN Server. Now I've got a new machine with a Windows 7 64 bit. The Cisco VPN Client isn't avaiable in a 64 bit version. Cisco suggests to use Cisco AnyConnect instead because there'a 64 bit version avaiable.

The problem: When I use AnyConnect on my new machine, I always get a timeout when I try to connect.

So I've installed AnyConnect on the old machine for testing and there I get the same problem: connection timeout. When I use the CPN Client, everything works fine.

How can I fix this problem?

Best Answer

This depends on the VPN server on the other side too. Older VPN Concentrators use a different protocol (IPSec over UDP/TCP) while AnyConnect tunnels through HTTPS. So it may be a configuration issue on the server side where HTTPS might not be enabled or the server is simply too old in which case you're out of luck.

There are third-party clients that support connecting to Cisco VPN servers, such as

  • Shrew Soft VPN Client. I killed my machine with that back in last January, though. But maybe they have Windows 7 support by now and don't blue-screen anymore.
  • vpnc which supposedly works on Cygwin too.
Related Question