So I had a huge issue with the VPN client at work for the past 2 days and finally solved it last night.

It started when I had to install the Cisco VPN client on my work machine to connect to a client’s network to install some new software I wrote on there…should be a simple proposition, I’ve used the Cisco VPN client hundreds of times when I was at the U of A to use the UA wireless net and connect from off-campus. No big deal. So I install it, reboot, do what it tells me, and finally import the PCF file and connect. Less than 10 seconds after connecting, it BSODs with one of those IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL stop codes. So I’m thinking, “whatever…it probably is some other kernel code that’s fucking up the client” so I turn off my firewall (I’m behind a NAT anyway, I just don’t trust my system admins here after doing systems administration myself for 2+ years…I know our tricks ^^) and take down my OpenVPN connection and reboot. It boots back up, Cisco client up, BSOD. Fuck.

So I uninstall the fucking thing and use the Linux Cisco VPN client and some clever bridging on my other computer here at work.

This is where the problem comes in…I notice that my OpenVPN connection doesn’t work properly…transfers over 8K don’t work properly. They transfer about 8k and die. What the fuck? I go through a TON of network diagnostics and find at the end that the Cisco VPN fucked up my TCP/IP stack beyond repair, so I reinstalled the Cisco junk. My network works now, but I have this piece of trashware on my system now.

Fucking Cisco.