Connecting to work machine via VPN is very flaky

[archcommus]

I connect to my desktop at work on a domain from home via VPN. The VPN always dials successfully, and then I can access all network folders no problem, and I can RDC to servers, virtual images, and other things without issue. RDCing to my personal desktop, however, is flaky. Sometimes using its name doesn't work while entering its IP will. Other times it won't connect at all even though it returns my pings. Other times it won't connect directly from my home machine but it WILL connect from within a virtual image on the network that I connect to from my home machine, in other words a RDC session within a RDC session.

What could be some possible causes here?

 

[FoBoT]

the part where it sometimes connects by name and sometimes only by IP is likely DNS issues due to the tunnel
your home machine may still be trying to use internet DNS after the tunnel is established instead of the DNS from the tunnel (your work network)
or maybe you aren't using the FQDN ? be sure to try the entire name with the domain

otherwise just use the IP for that issue

the other flakiness may be some routing issues on your work network , maybe some routing problem from the VPN concentrator to your work desktop. maybe you can ask some others at work if they have the same issue

good luck

 

[archcommus]

I was told by our IT guy the problem was that the machine was set to use a static IP, and its address was one which was recently put into the VPN pool for use by any machine. He set it back to dynamic and it seems to have fixed the problems, hopefully for good.

Thanks.

 

[Hyperlite]

if the problem happens to pop back up, what type of connection are you on? i know VPN's are very temperamental when trying to connect through a Satellite connection (Hughes, etc). Basically anything that can cause a spike in latency, or a high latency connection, can freak a VPN out.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Hyperlite
if the problem happens to pop back up, what type of connection are you on? i know VPN's are very temperamental when trying to connect through a Satellite connection (Hughes, etc). Basically anything that can cause a spike in latency, or a high latency connection, can freak a VPN out.

It is a university connection. Extremely high bandwidth, no idea about latency, though.