Recent issues with work SSTP VPN

[#1]

Up until the 17th May my work SSTP VPN was working completely fine, however at 16:38 it disconnected and I have been unable to reconnect to it since. After spending a day with my IT department the following has been tried:

-Changing routers and resetting them.

-Trying the VPN on different devices.

The VPN will not connect using my home broadband, I have even moved to a fixed IP to see if this may help but it has not.

I have tried the above devices on different networks including mobile using the same VPN configuration and they connect fine. 

This leaves my home broadband as the deciding factor. 

Any help on this would be appreciated obviously I am unable to work until this is resolved., I have also phoned and got the standard (we dont support VPNs) and also contacted the twitter support account on it but have yet to receive a response. 

Thanks in advance

[#2]

I can supply DNS entries and IPs to the work connection but I wont post them on the open forum for obvious reasons.

[#3]

@andrewhawker818 

There is an account based Firewall which is worth checking, it can be found in the members centre.

This link might work https://www.plus.net/member-centre/broadband/firewall if not.

From the home page navigate >Broadband >Broadband Firewall see bottom right of screen, it is no longer required. 

I would suggest turning it Off if it is set to Low or High

HTH

[#4]

I have even moved to a fixed IP to see if this may help but it has not.

@andrewhawker818 do you mean you've requested a static public IP ? and have you paid the £5 and confirmed its activated ?

Note that the automated system of activating a static IP is broken and it needs to be requested via CSC or the forums

[#5]

Yes I added the add on and confirmed it is action, I do now have a fixed IP (using whats my ip) 

[#6]

I don't have that option under broadband and when I use the link it presents a blank page. 

[#7]

I have FFTP, I dont know if the firewall is not available for those packages or if there is a bug on the plusnet website etc.

[#8]

@andrewhawker818 

The broadband firewall isnt used (or available) on recent accounts.

Did your IT dept pull the VPN logs and check that they can see connection attempts from your IP ?

TBH it sounds like the VPN server has a block on your IP. That would explain why it doesnt work from your home connection but works from elsewhere.

However that theory is somewhat dispelled by the fact that you have changed IP.

There's still the possibility of an IP block due to incorrect geolocation.

Does a tracert to the VPN server complete sucessfully ?

[#9]

Thanks for the information about the broadband firewall, in regards the logs etc. 

The IT department cant find any entry on the firewall (before VPN) from my IP (old dynamic or new static) trying to make a connection. 

They did test turning the firewall off but this made no difference they still couldn't see an entry, I've just tried a tracert and it looks like it is reaching the bt.net servers and then getting no further:

1 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.254
2 5 ms 6 ms 5 ms 250.core.plus.net [195.166.130.250]
3 7 ms 7 ms 6 ms 84.93.253.87
4 7 ms 6 ms 6 ms 195.99.125.140
5 11 ms 8 ms 8 ms core1-hu0-0-0-26.guildford.ukcore.bt.net [62.172.103.138]
6 8 ms 10 ms 8 ms acc2-hu0-0-0-0.guildford.ukcore.bt.net [62.172.102.63]
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.

All other requests timed out

[#10]

That could be a routing problem, or it could just be that some of the routers and the final destaination just dont respond to icmp.

If you're running windows then you might try Test-NetConnection on port 443 which is the SSTP port

https://www.pdq.com/blog/whats-the-powershell-equivalent-of-tracert/

[#11]

So I did a test using Test-NetConnection one involving going through NordVPN connected which actually allows me to connect to the company VPN once connected. Then a test with NordVPN disconnected to see the difference:

With NordVPN connected:

ComputerName : xxxxxxxxxxx

RemoteAddress : xxxxxxxxxx

RemotePort : 443

InterfaceAlias : Ethernet 2

SourceAddress : 10.8.0.198
TcpTestSucceeded : True

With NordVPN disconnected (normal connection):

ComputerName : xxxxxxxxxxx

RemoteAddress : xxxxxxxxxx

RemotePort : 443
InterfaceAlias : Ethernet
SourceAddress : 192.168.0.21
PingSucceeded : False
PingReplyDetails (RTT) : 0 ms
TcpTestSucceeded : False

[#12]

I should note that the NordVPN external IP address is dynamic

[#13]

Sorry to be a pain but could you repeat those tests with some diagnostic options on Test-NetConnection

Add the -DiagnoseRouting and -InformationLevel Detailed options

That might shed a bit more light

[#14]

Hi, I ran the following:

Test-NetConnection -Port 443 "xxxxxxxxxx" -Informationlevel "Detailed"
WARNING: TCP connect to (xxxxxxxxxxx : 443) failed
WARNING: Ping to xxxxxxxxxx failed with status: TimedOut

ComputerName : xxxxxxxxxxx
RemoteAddress : xxxxxxxxxxx
RemotePort : 443
NameResolutionResults : xxxxxxxxxx
MatchingIPsecRules :
NetworkIsolationContext : Internet
InterfaceAlias : Ethernet
SourceAddress : 192.168.0.21
NetRoute (NextHop) : 192.168.0.111
PingSucceeded : False
PingReplyDetails (RTT) : 0 ms
TcpTestSucceeded : False

[#15]

Test-NetConnection "xxxxxxxxxxx" -DiagnoseRouting -InformationLevel Detailed

ComputerName : xxxxxxxxxxx
RemoteAddress : xxxxxxxxxxx
SelectedSourceAddress : 192.168.0.21
OutgoingInterfaceIndex : 18
SelectedNetRoute : DestinationPrefix: 0.0.0.0/0
NextHop: 192.168.0.111
DestinationAddressSelectionEvents :
RouteSelectionEvents :
SourceAddressSelectionEvents :
RouteDiagnosticsSucceeded : True