well, i have been connecting now and then. i went through the entire VPN architecture at m$ technet, and went through the PPTP, and L2TP tunnel methods as well.
i have written down the settings i have used. Most of them have already been mentioned, so i think the main problem is the internet pipe isnt very stable for this type of connection because i get alot of intermittent results. it makes me think that those who are having hard times connecting, may stumble across the correct settings as i did, but still have the connection drop during that trial run due to bad connectivity and never know that your settings were actually correct. for example, when i am connected, the ping returns from the client to the host are random at best, and this is the case almost everytime im connected. also, sometimes it just wont connect, but if i keep trying to reconnect using the same settings and give the host comptuer time to fully wake up and the network to fully -re-establish itself after it has a brain fart, then it will finally connect.
so dont forget to add a dash of persistence, and try connecting atlest 5 times on each settings that you do decide to try. It could take 5 to 10 minutes if your adjusting the networks hard, sometimes even the router needs to rebuild the routing table, and that takes a while too. dont hesitate to practice router restarts, as well as host and client pc restarts.
i also wanted to mention the thing that i think was the deal breaker for me that was the main problem to not get any connect at all, and once i found that setting the connection went from defunct, to semi-reliable. this setting was in the ipv4 properties of the host. once i set that bottom setting that says 'allow callers to specify their own ip' that got me connected. then i had to go and fix back all the other settings to troubleshoot, like turning up the encryptions to maximum(still worked), and turning off EAP, and CHAP(still worked) and turning on to 'include windows logon domain or account into' (still worked) so as long as your settings are laxed you should get a connection, but check that ipv4 properties on the vpn server host to make sure you fully explore all the variables in there.
PPTP VPN
client VPN connection properties:
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display progress while connection
include windows logon domain
redial attempts 5
time between 10seconds
idle time before hanging up - never
redial if dropped
PPP settings-enable LCP extensions, Enable software compressions
PP2P tunneling protocol
maximum encryption,
ms-chap-v2
ipv4,file and printer sharing, client for windows
include windows logon domain
and log on authentication
server VPN connection properties:
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protocl settings - ipv4 (make sure and try to allow users to specify ip), file printer sharing, client for windows
set in your username for allowed users(i used administrator, and my username to be on the safe side)
router properties:
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servers router - open ports 1723 tcp, 500 UDP, 4500 UDP
clients router - if filtering outgoing connections, then probably mostly
same as above - ports 1723 tcp, 500 UDP, 4500 UDP
windows firewall properties:
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client - on - after enabling misc default rules, including PP2P-GRE headers
server - on - after enabling misc default rules, including PP2P-GRE headers
diagnose:
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server software firewall - completely turn off the software firewall on the server machine, test connection.
server router - set ip of server machine to DMZ in router, test connetion.
host vpn settings - test various encryption options, such as 'Optional Encryption'
