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Earthlink + VPN + DNS = trouble.... Here's a workaround if you're having problems...

skatey-mark's picture
Submitted by skatey-mark on Wed Sep 13 2006 10:37pm
For all the geeks out there that work at home via a vpn connection to their company, I ran into a little trouble today and it appears that Earthlink has recently changed the way their dns servers work. For me, this change interferes with looking up hostnames on the IBM intranet when connected via VPN. For those non-IBMers out there, this probably will affect you if you use VPN too...  You can read more about the change at the link below (as well as read the rantings of many dissatisfied Earthlink subscribers...)

The behavior is very similar to spyware that hijacks the browser, so I burned many hours today running spyware scans, virus scans, and otherwise trying to figure out why my system was screwed up. I could access some internal sites, but not others -- it was really weird. Eventually I stumbled onto the above site. Surprisingly, when I contacted Earthlink customer support, I got a quick and correct workaround for the problem.

Go into your tcp/ip dns settings...

In the Preferred DNS server field, enter 202.27.184.3

In the Alternate DNS server field, enter 202.27.184.5

That should fix the problem. I made the change to my "home" configuration in Access Connections (thinkpad netowrk configuration switching tool) and can now access everything on the intranet that I was using before. (Like the cvs server, for example.) Hopefully this saves somebody some debugging time... I couldn't find any information on Google with this workaround, so I've been posting it to a few forums, and figured I'd post it here too.

- SM -

TRANSCRIPT:

info: 'Valeria K' says: Thank you for contacting EarthLink LiveChat, how may I help you today?

xxxxxxxx@earthlink.net: the changes that earthlink has recently implemented for dns lookup has screwed up my vpn access. i can no longer work from home because earthlink is hijacking legitimate web addresses for my company's internal network

Valeria K: I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you in this regard.

xxxxxxxx@earthlink.net: are there alternate dns servers i can use that work correctly?

Valeria K: Yes, please give me a moment while I give you the information.

Valeria K: Please use these DNS settings :

In the Preferred DNS server field, enter 202.27.184.3

In the Alternate DNS server field, enter 202.27.184.5

Valeria K: Is there anything else I may assist you with today?

xxxxxxxx@earthlink.net: excellent. that worked. thank you.

Valeria K: You are welcome.

Valeria K: It is my pleasure assisting you.

Valeria K: Do you have further queries to assist you with?


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Comments

DNS servers set up for EarthLink users on VPN's

Submitted by dcearthling on Mon Sep 18 2006 3:48pm.

Hi,

 I saw your blog entry about VPN problems relating to our recent DNS changes. I just wanted to point to an update I published over the weekend on the EarthLink blog -- http://blogs.earthlink.net/2006/09/more_info_on_dead_domain_handl.php

There are a couple of DNS addresses listed there that are outside of our normal system and should be helpful if you're using a VPN over EarthLink internet access.

roadskater's picture

Thanks for More Help with Earthlink VPN

Submitted by roadskater on Mon Sep 18 2006 4:29pm.
Thanks, dcearthling, for taking the time and trouble to join roadskater.net (a sometimes slow process if I don't know you) to add to our knowledge here. This speaks well of your desire to provide customer service and "come and get it" via internet search definitely works! You're welcome here and we hope you'll join us on the roads sometime.
roadskater's picture

How Mark Might Have Replied Last Week

Submitted by roadskater on Thu Sep 14 2006 12:11pm.

Valeria K: Do you have further queries to assist you with?

xxxxxxxx@earthlink.net: Would you like to skate or bike 90 miles in 2 days to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis research and treatment?

Valeria K: Please give me a moment while I give you the information.

xxxxxxxx@earthlink.net: Would you like to donate to the Roadskater.net team?

Valeria K: Please give me a moment while I give you the information.

[Great InlineCafe post. InlineCafe.com is for skaters to teach other skaters what they know best, or to share interesting, positive or otherwise meaningful experiences outside of skating or cycling with each other and with the world. We avoid heavy religious or political items here, and try to keep it in the spirit of Skateylove, where respectful disagreement is the goal if we can't agree.]

skatey-mark's picture

Humans, bots, and fundraising...

Submitted by skatey-mark on Thu Sep 14 2006 12:17pm.

Man -- I am SO trying that next time!  LOL!

 

- SM - 

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