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I've recently been unable to connect to our Sonicwall VPN at work. The Sonicwall client is stuck on "connecting", and the log says "The peer is not responding to phase1 ISAKMP requests".

The weird thing is that this is not an issue with my own PC, only my work laptop (Lenovo W530 running Windows 7 64-bit), and this has only appeared recently. This ought to rule out any problems with my ISP blocking VPN, or issues with the router itself.

My company's IT department says that they cannot see anything in their logs when I'm trying to connect. My conclusion is that something is wrong on the laptop itself. Disabling the firewall does not help.

Can the VPN connection be blocked in other ways? What should I be looking for?

EDIT: This problem has "magically" disappeared, without any changes done in my network. I can only assume that this was caused by some network glitch with my ISP.

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    The last time I knew some guy having this problem, he was not correctly typing the IP address...
    – 174140
    Jan 23, 2014 at 9:54
  • The IP address of the VPN server can be pinged from the command line, so I think I've ruled that out.
    – JesperE
    Jan 23, 2014 at 9:59
  • Not necessarily related, but when I've had issue with Cisco's VPN, I had to manually adjust/optimize my max MTU to the correct value (it's been 1500 rather than 1492, which caused the client to reject/reconnect indefinitely).
    – Mario
    Apr 29, 2014 at 7:11
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    I tried fiddling around with the MTU, but it did not have any effect. Since the problem appeared/disappeared without any action on my part (AFAIK), I can only presume that the problem was ISP-related.
    – JesperE
    May 1, 2014 at 8:03
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the OP describes in an edit that the issue was a hiccup that magically disappeared. It is not reproducible.
    – fixer1234
    Apr 9, 2017 at 4:28

4 Answers 4

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For others looking into this issue:

We've had the same problem with some computers with some external networks. My work laptop doesn't connect to the VPN from home, but it can connect using a Verizon MiFi or other networks. I recently discovered that in my home Netgear WAN settings, if I check the "Disable SPI Firewall" option, then I can connect to the VPN. Perhaps that's something to check out.

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Had a client with a Sonicwall Global VPN client which would not prompt for a username and password when connecting when he was working from remote office. However if he tried the connection from his home it worked perfectly. GVPN software version 4.8.6.0826 connecting to a TZ 100. The only information in the log was 'the peer is not responding to phase 1 isakmp requests'. Updated MTU settings on the modem in remote office from 1500 down to 1492 - no effect. Tested with firewall on modem disabled - no effect. Finally tried disabling QoS on modem. Once applied the login popped up immediately.

The modem in use is a ZyXel eircom F1000 modem. Hope this helps someone. Took me about 5 hours to resolve........

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Disable NAT transversal in “GVC Properties -> Peers -> Edit IP.”

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    Please explain how you think this will solve the problem. Sep 4, 2015 at 8:08
  • Thanks that worked for me. It appears that sometimes the client fails to connect because it is unable to do the NAT traversal. It is only after a disconnection that it fails to reconnect using NAT traversal. If I restart the cable modem it is able to do the NAT traversal successfully again. More info here. Aug 29, 2017 at 19:12
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I also had this issue for a client, and noticed they also had a Netgear router. We replaced an old SOHO SonicWALL with a TZ 105, and ever since then they couldn't connect. Disabling SPI Firewall under WAN Settings worked perfectly!

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