Windows – Cisco AnyConnect fails after initiating connection

cisco-vpn-clientvpnwindows 7

I'm trying to VPN to my work place but Cisco AnyConnect fails after initiating a connection. It pops up an error that says The VPN client failed to establish a connection then it shows another error saying AnyConnect was not able to establish a connection to the specified secure gateway. Please try connecting again. I've tried everything. Reinstalling, restarting, and various other things like disabling ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). I tried it on my laptop and the web-installer worked fine. It installed the client and connected perfectly ok so it must be something with this PC. I've been trying to figure this out for about 5 hours now and Googling doesn't help. Here's the message history from AnyConnect:

[11/11/2013 1:55:55 PM] Ready to connect. [11/11/2013 1:57:05 PM] Contacting ---.---.---.--- [11/11/2013 1:57:07 PM] Please enter your username and password. [11/11/2013 1:57:08 PM] User credentials entered. [11/11/2013 1:57:08 PM] Establishing VPN session... [11/11/2013 1:57:09 PM] Checking for profile updates... [11/11/2013 1:57:09 PM] Checking for product updates... [11/11/2013 1:57:10 PM] Checking for customization updates... [11/11/2013 1:57:10 PM] Performing any required updates... [11/11/2013 1:57:15 PM] Establishing VPN session... [11/11/2013 1:57:15 PM] Establishing VPN - Initiating connection... [11/11/2013 1:57:16 PM] Disconnect in progress, please wait... [11/11/2013 1:57:29 PM] Connection attempt has failed. [11/11/2013 1:59:31 PM] Ready to connect.

I tried turning off the firewall and anti-virus. I didn't think it would matter since my laptop uses the same firewall and anti-virus too and I didn't need to disable that. My laptop uses Windows 7 Home 64-bit and my PC that is failing is using Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

Best Answer

The solution for me was to disable Internet Connection Sharing (ICS).

To resolve this issue:

Click the Windows Start button.
Click on Control Panel.
Set View by: to Category.
Click on View network status and tasks under Network and Internet.
Click on Change adapter settings.
Look for Shared in the Status column and right-click that connection and click Properties.
Click the Sharing tab.
Clear the Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection check box.
Click OK.
Reinstall Cisco AnyConnect.

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Windows – Cisco AnyConnect VPN client – prevent connecting as work network

Here's what has worked for me:

start the VPN client and connect
now run secpol.msc
go to the node Network List Manager Policies
open the properties of your remote domain network
go to the tab "Network Location"
change "Location type" to Public
(optional?) change "User permissions" to "User cannot change location"

From now on windows will retain the network type as "public". enter image description here

Technically speaking this will populate entries below the following:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Signatures\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Signatures\

Those policies take precedence over the following entries - which (due to whatever logic) may change dynamically:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\

--
Confirmed with:
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client 3.1.06079 @ Win7 x64

Update:
still working fine with Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client 3.1.10010 @ Win7 x64

Split Tunnel and Cisco AnyConnect

First understand that the reason your network admins have disallowed split tunneling is because it potentially allows any malicious person/code to circumvent the security measures that have been implemented by accessing the network via your computer. Believe me I know not having a split tunnel is annoying, but ask your self is it worth the risk?

Now that warnings are out of the way I can tell you Cisco AnyConnect prevents a split tunnel by temporarily re-writing the routing table of the host computer. Use route print before you start AnyConnect and use it again after to see the differences. You can write a script to adjust the routing table and run it after you start AnyConnect. An easier solution that probably doesn't violate your networks usage policy is simply using a VM with AnyConnect. Your host's NIC doesn't get locked down and you don't break any rules... best of both worlds.

Best Answer

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Windows – Cisco AnyConnect VPN client – prevent connecting as work network

Split Tunnel and Cisco AnyConnect

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