CMAK VPN

Hi,
I never tested with Windows CMAK. You can go in the advanced option and set the debug level to 1. After that, you can check the application log located in the help menu.

Let me know if you find something.

David Hervieux
Devolutions inc.

Hmm,

rasdial cannot handle CMAK profiles to connect, but it CAN disconnect them.

You can however call the CMAK connection using rasphone, but I don't see a way to pass username / password / domain and auto connect.

I did find this group discussing the implementation of this feature, but as a non-programmer, it doesn't mean much to me.

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/microsoft.public.platformsdk.networking/browse_thread/thread/c403642cee02b2c2/b8c2f3d9272c754c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=rasdial+cmak
Maybe this makes sense to you?

Maybe as a last alternative, you could implement an option on the VPN page that says, CMAK VPN? with a tick box, and if ticked, it blanks the username / password boxes and calls the VPN via rasphone (but means the user will have to manually enter username/password in the VPN connection box and click connect).

rasphone -d "%vpnconnection%"

Then you can use rasdial "%vpnconnection% /disconnect to disconnect the VPN connection.

Do you think that is a possible feature to include in the next release? Or does it sound like an unnecessary feature? Surely I'm not the only one using CMAK for VPN.

Thanks.

Keith.
edited by kellycomputerservices on 8/6/2009

Hi,
I'm currently refactoring the VPN stuff, I will try to add this if you want to do the test for me ?

David Hervieux
Devolutions inc.

Hi David,

Yes I'd gladly test for you. It's a feature that I'm sure will enrich the program.

I have a few more ideas which I'll add to the features forum.

Thanks.

Keith

Hi,
The CMAK will be in the next beta. I will notify you so you can test it for me, maybe tomorrow.

Thank you

David Hervieux
Devolutions inc.

That's fine, let me know as and when. :)

Cheers.

seems like it is in the latest beta

http://remotedesktopmanager.com/download/Devolutions.RemoteDesktopManager.Bin.5.6.0.5.zip

readme says:
# Added support for VPN created with the Connection Manager Administrator Kit

Hi,
It was not released officially, be careful if you use it. There is some work in progress inside the application.

David Hervieux
Devolutions inc.

OK it kinda works, but not brilliantly.

If you don't press connect in the CMAK VPN box when it is brought up, RDM times out and throws an error about how rasphone couldn't dial the connection. (unable to connect to the VPN with -d "CMAKVPN": rasphone.exe)

Info[03/09/2009 17:58] Opening VPN with command line: rasphone.exe -d "CMAKVPN"
Info[03/09/2009 17:59] System.InvalidOperationException: Process must exit before requested information can be determined.
at System.Diagnostics.Process.EnsureState(State state)
at System.Diagnostics.Process.get_ExitCode()
at Devolutions.RemoteDesktopManager.Managers.VPNManager.OpenMicrosoftVPN(VPNConnection aVPN)

If you do connect, rasphone prompts that you're going to be disconnected from the VPN in 30, 29, 28... and counts down. It gives you an option to stay online or disconnect now.



Other than that, it works well.

BUT....

I've been playing around with the CMAK entry in rasphone.pbk, and I've managed to find a way to get rasdial to dial the CMAK connection. There are 2 lines in rasphone.pbk that need changing to acomplish this. These are:

Type=4 (change this to 2, so it should be Type=2)
CustomRasDialDll=%windir%\system32\cmdial32.dll (delete this dll path, so it should be CustomRasDialDll=)

Once you change those 2 entries, you can successfully get rasdial to call the connection, AND you can pass username / password / domain via the command line.

So, is there an easy way for you to change the code to edit the rasphone.pbk? Hopefully this is of some use to you.

If you want, I will create a CMAK VPN profile for you pointing to a test server. I can pm you the file if you wish if it makes your life a little easier?

Thanks, and good luck!

Keith.

Hi,
Thank you for the information. I will try to enhance this feature by the end of the beta. I must admit that I don't want to modify the pbk file, I don't want to be responsible for any problem related to that. But your post will stay on the forum as tip for other users.

David Hervieux
Devolutions inc.

I'm not sure if this is 100% related to this bug specifically but I wanted to thank you for adding support for "CMAK" connections. While I've used the CMAK in the past so I'm familiar with it's use, the option in RDM seems especially useful to me now when I'm not using connections created by CMAK. On Win7 Ent 64-bit, I've created a VPN connection and configured it to log in automatically using my Windows session's login credentials, so I don't have to retype my password. If I check the "CMAK" option and select this (manually created) VPN connection in RDM, it connects without prompting for credentials and I don't have to enter/store them in RDM with each connection! Great feature, please keep it!

The only thing I ran into is I use the same connections file on my work desktop (with no VPN configured) and laptop (VPN needed only at home). I noticed when I opened RDM at work with the connections file I configured at home on my laptop with a VPN enabled, one specific connection popped up an error saying "VPN doesn't exist" (which it didn't on that computer). Other connections, using the same VPN from the laptop, didn't get modified or complain/error when I edited other parts of the connection even though the VPN didn't exist (and it kept the setting as it was). Not sure why the fluke. Running 5.6.0.15 beta. No biggie (and not worth reporting as a separate bug, in my opinion at least), just a bit strange.

Hi,
Can you send me a print screen with the message ?

You can send it to support@devolutions.net

David Hervieux
Devolutions inc.

I actually can't seem to reproduce this error today, if I do I'll send it to you. I run into a connection that was set to "VPN if unable to ping" and (although the host was up) it tried to connect the VPN on the LAN (maybe the host was firewalled against pings...I haven't dug into it). It popped up a message saying (Title: Network Connections): "Cannot Load dialog. Error 623: The system could not find the phone book entry for this connection." with an OK button. This popped up behind the "Remote Desktop Manager: Opening VPN connection..." dialog. The VPN connection does not exist on this desktop, just on the laptop that I shared these connections with (there are no VPN connections configured on the desktop at all).

If I remove the dial-VPN-if-can't-ping setting and change it to None, it works fine. This isn't a huge deal, as I can manually dial the VPN from home (and often do), but I figured I'd mention it.

No problem,
I want to see if the message come from RDM or from rasdial.

Thank you

David Hervieux
Devolutions inc.

Thanks for your response David. I was setting these up wrong. I've fixed it now.

Thanks for all your help :)