VPN client failing: compatibility problem?

[hunterdighton]

I'm a VPN novice, trying to run Cisco VPN client version 4.0.4 on my Dell M90 laptop, Windows XP professional, version 5.1, Service Pack 2.

The system was pre-configured for me by my company's IT people. We have a pretty large group of people who have used the VPN client extensively and without problems. But somehow when I try to do so, it usually hangs up at the "Authenticating user..." message, and doesn't prompt me for a username and password. It does work sometimes, but usually it doesn't, and my chances of success don't seem to depend on the network connection that I have, as it has both worked and not worked on fast connections and slow connections, wired and wireless.

So far our VPN server administrator has drawn a blank. I'm starting to think that there must be some compatibility problem that's preventing the VPN client from running properly on my computer. Can anyone think of one?

[wdrootz]

Take a look at this link:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps2308/prod_release_note09186a0080379b1b.html#wp1071870

[hunterdighton]

Thanks for the post! That Cisco document is excellent. After reading it, I began to suspect that my dock was to blame for my problems. It turns out that wasn't actually the issue, but it did send me down the right path, helping me to realize that my problems were all associated with connecting a second monitor to my laptop.

As it turns out, my Cisco VPN client was working fine all along. It's just that, when I had two monitors set up, the VPN client's "username and password" dialog box had been appearing someplace outside of visible desktop space.

I'm using an NVIDIA video card, and there's a setting in NVIDIA nView that forces new windows to appear in visible desktop space. That seems to have solved the problem.

I'm going to keep this link around, and forward it to our VPN administrator.