Intermittent Network Connection Drops

About 3 weeks I started to experience intermittent VPN connection drops every 2-8 minutes.

I connect to a computer in Boston via VPN to work on software projects.

I have:
ESET Smart Security 5
Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit
Zoomtel 5350 Modem & router combo
Lenovo ThinkPad W510 laptop.

I've had Comcast technicians check the signal several times, replaced the modem, reinstalled the VPN software, upgraded to the latest drivers, ran system tests, etc. (I could spend an hour explaining all the debugging I've done to find the cause of the intermittent drops)

Today the laptop manufacturer tech support suggested reinstalling Windows 7 on the theory a virus had infected the OS and was causing the problem. I figured reinstalling Windows 7 and restoring all my files would have require 7+ days. Since I couldn't do work for my clients during the period of time I'd lose a significant chunk of income.

It finally occurred to me to do a search on "ESET network connection drops". I found another post in the ESET forums where another person posted about a similar problem in 2010. Here's the link to that post: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=262000

Prior to turning off the ESET firewall I saw 4 drops in 4 minutes.

I turned on Windows Firewall and turned off ESET firewall for 30 minutes.

NO connection drops in 30 minutes!

ESET automatically turned on ESET firewall and I turned off Windows Firewall.

Within 2-3 minutes I started to see network connection drops.

WayneP Support Specialist, in the 2010 post I linked to above, suggested to set the firewall to Interactive mode. I'm already in interactive filtering mode.

I noticed CrossLoop is sensitive to ESET actions. However, TeamViewer is not sensitive to ESET actions related to network connections.

Other than turning off ESET firewall and turning on Windows Firewall does anyone have any suggestions how to fix this problem?

Ed

 

Hello,

Try enabling the following functionality in ESET Smart Security 5's Personal firewall and let's see if that makes any difference for you:

1. Open ESET Smart Security from the system tray notification area. The main ESET Smart Security will appear.
2. Press the F5 key to open the Advanced Settings dialog.
3. In the left pane of the Advanced Settings dialog, navigate to Network → Personal Firewall → IDS and Advanced Options → Allowed Services.
4. Under Allowed Services, make sure the following options are enabled (checked): Maintain Inactive TCP connections and Allow communication for bridged connections (the latter may or may not be required, depending upon how the VPN client works).
5. Click on OK at the bottom of the Advanced Settings dialog to commit the changes, and then close the ESET Smart Security user interface window.

The changes you have made to ESET Smart Security's configuration do not require a reboot, however, I would like for one to be performed on the system, just to ensure a known-good state of the network stack and VPN connection software. Once that's done, go ahead and log into the ThinkPad W510 as you normally would, start a normal work session with the VPN connection, and let us know the results.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

Hi Aryeh,

Thank you for your help.

I followed your instructions, rebooted my laptop, stopped Windows Firewall, restarted the VPN connection, and then started an RDC connection to my Boston computer.

I saw VPN connection drops within a few minutes of connecting via RDC.

Ed

 

Hello,

This sounds like it will need some further investigation to resolve. I would suggest contacting North American technical support at +1 (866) 343-3738 and working with them to see if there are additional exclusions which need to be set.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

Don't know if you're still experiencing the problem, but I had a similar issue with an SAP frontend (a client-server system). Any time there was 30 seconds or so of inactivity it would drop the connection, but not outright. The app still stayed "connected", only on the next comms attempt it would fail. Turn off firewall and it's fine.

I tried the settings suggested here, no joy. Eventually I discovered turning off "Check TCP connection status" in the advanced options did the trick. I can now leave it idle for as long as I like and it stays connected. I even unticked the other settings mentioned a few posts back and it still works.

Took me two days to get to the bottom of it, so posting here in the hope it saves some other poor sod from a bit of headache.