[Openvpn-users] Windows XP SP2 problems (and solutions)

[Anssi K. <ans...@ik...>]

Hi
 
I spent an afternoon again wondering the wonders of Windows XP SP2 and
OpenVPN. Some of you have had problems with getting OpenVPN to work after
upgrading to SP2. I installed XP SP1 to vmware virtual machine and then
updated to SP2. Here are my findings:
 
If Kerio Personal Firewall is installed then it might be that network
adapters lose their ability to receive data (and therefore cannot get IP
address with DHCP). I tried both old version 2.1.5 and new 4.1.1. Newer
version seems to have more problems than the older version. With older
version things are somewhat tolerable, but the new version causes only loss
of hair.
Disabling the firewall doesn't do any good. You have to completely uninstall
it to get OpenVPN working like it should.
 
I also tried ZoneAlarm and had no problems with it. Bad thing is that I
don't like ZoneAlarm at all and rather live with problems than change to
ZoneAlarm. It's so hard to find a good (configurable) firewall.
 
So everyone who's having these strange SP2 problems should try other
firewall programs to see if that fixes the problem.
Also there is a workaround to get nonworking adapters to work: just uncheck
tcp/ip from adapter properties, accept changes and then recheck tcp/ip. This
has to be done to every nonworking adapter (and sometimes multiple times)
and after every reboot. 
 
Anssi Kolehmainen