Router or VPN issues... I don't know which one yet

OK... I didn't know which forum to post this on, but I know there are lots of brilliant AntiOnliners out there that have helped me in the past... hopefully you see this: :D

I have a VPN setup between two SonicWall TZ170s in my two offices. I am running a Window Network but have a Unix mainframe we access for a lot of our data. In my main office I use TinyTerm emulator to access the mainframe. Up in my other office that runs over the VPN I use FacetWin. Since I installed FacetWin it has been disconnecting randomly every 15 minutes to an hour and we need to keep reconnecting. Which doesn't seem like a big deal but it is filling up all my pseudo-devices and causing a big mess. I determined that only the terminals the were inactive for while were the ones that were disconnecting. I had my software developer just send a null character every couple minutes to keep the sessions alive and that has remedied the problem for now. But I would really like to find out what is causing the problem.

I've already determined the Internet connections and the VPN connection itself is not going down.

Any thoughts? Need anymore details? :confused:

Is there anything in the logs to give a clue?

I would be inclined to try Facetwin technical support. They may well have come across it before?

http://www.facetcorp.com/contact.html

Sorry, I cannot be of more help that that.

:)

My software developer and myself did talk to facetwin tech support for quit a while. We tried several things, but to no avail. They are actually the ones who blamed it on the router or VPN.

Anything in the logs?

My thinking would be that if it was the router or VPN it would take out all the logged on users?

You mention "Internet Connections"..................please check the settings that there isn't a timeout specified. It should be something like "idle time before hanging up"

You have two routers, pain in the a$$, but as they are the same you could try swapping them over and see if the problem changes offices ;)

Are the VPN settings identical? or do you just have one VPN setup?

:)

I did view the logs for the past few days of the firewall up it the branch that kept dropping the connection and saw that the only time the VPN reconnected was at its scheduled 28800 second renegotiation period. I called their ISP to get their last months connectivity report and determined that their connection hadn't gone down once.

About switching the routers... I am running a T1 into the main office and a DSL line for the other branch.

Any other thoughts.

Ooops... sorry nihil, I'm not answering all your questions. Yes, the settings on both sides of the VPN are identical.

I agree that if it were at the VPN or router level that it should take all the computers off at the sametime, but it is happening to individual computers, at different times... :confused:

TinyTerm probably sends "keep alives" at regular intervals.. Look for a similar setting on the FacetWin emulator....

Thanks, I will look...