Broadband IC sharing on AOL 8 in the UK (L2TP VPN connection

[tmason]

I am trying to correctly configure Wingate to allow me to share my AOL Broadband connection, via my BT ADSL line in the UK (I have with 2 PCs in a SOHO setup)

The normal AOL login (via the AOL screen name) creates a WAN VPN (L2TP) connection using the BT Voyager 100 DSL Modem. However, it is also possible to make a standard dial-in connection to AOL by entering "AOLScreenname@aol.com" into the BT Voyager Modem dial-in entry under Start >>Connect to option. This then connects to an AOL proxy server (xxx.proxy.aol.com) and does not creat a VPN.

MY WINGATE CONFIGURATION
I have successfully configured Wingate to share the IC (using NAT) when connected via the non-VPN dial-in method using the following config:
- ENS: NAT (Enabled), Firewall (Disabled)
- DCHP Server (Fully automatic)
- TCP / IP Settings on gateway PC (IP = 192.168.0.1, no gateway entered, no DNS entered)
- WWW Proxy Service: Transparent Redirection = On (client PC not using http proxy)

Using the non-standard (ie non VPN dial-in) method is not ideal as I do not have access to the AOL browser. But this at least provides a baseline to show that Wingate is working on a non VPN dial-in connection.

PROBLEM
If I use the above configuration but then use the correct AOL login process (that creates a L2TP VPN) then I am unable to connect to Websites that require SSL (eg hotmail or windows update). I am also unable to connect my Hotmail account from within Outlook

Note: I am able to connect to SSL websites if I change from NAT to either http proxy or WGIC connection method. However, I do not wish to use the http Proxy method (does not work with Outlook/Hotmail) or WGIC method (I find that WGIC will lockup the client PC on startup if the Wingate/WGIC connection gets dropped)

Is there a better way to configure Wingate to work with my AOL L2TP VPN connection?

[Pascal]

MY WINGATE CONFIGURATION
I have successfully configured Wingate to share the IC (using NAT) when connected via the non-VPN dial-in method using the following config:
- ENS: NAT (Enabled), Firewall (Disabled)
- DCHP Server (Fully automatic)
- TCP / IP Settings on gateway PC (IP = 192.168.0.1, no gateway entered, no DNS entered)
- WWW Proxy Service: Transparent Redirection = On (client PC not using http proxy)

A few quick thoughts - does it make a difference if you turn off Transparent Redirection on the WWW Proxy Service ? (Just as a test)

Secondly, when connecting via Outlook / other applications unable to connect, is there any indication in the firewall or WWW Proxy Service or ENS log files (With debug logging turned on if possible) that might indicate what the problem is ?

[tmason]

After further investigation I appear to have solved the problem

SUMMARY of SYMPTOMS
Cannot access SSL (ie https) web site sites (eg hotmail or Windows update) from the a client PC that is connected to the wingate host PC using MS Internet Explorer. Note it is possible to access these same sites using AOLs own browser on the same client PC!!

Broadband: AOL 8 / 9 Beta in the UK, connected via a BT Line with supplied BT Voyager ADSL modem.

SOLUTION
The probem is soved by changing the default MTU setting from 1500 to the BT recommended setting of 1458.

The easiest way to make this change is to use the BT "network optimiser" tool that can be down loaded from:

http://www.broadband1.bt.com/across_the_country/news_item16.asp?t=2

For further information enter "BT "Network Optimiser"" or "MTU Adjustment tool" into a search engine.

Note: this problem was reproducible and reappeared if backed out the changes made by the BT optimiser tool,