VPN drop after lid close but not lid open sleep

[dp.ucsd]

Hi all,

Is a lid-open sleep not equal to a lid-close sleep ? If I initiate a "lid-open" sleep with inactivity exceeding the computer sleep time set in Prefs, Energy Saver, Battery, my VPN connection is still there after waking. If, however, I initiate a sleep by closing the lid, the VPN is no longer connected after waking.

Any suggestions ?

VPN client: Cisco AnyConnect 2.4.1012
machine: MBA w/SSD running 10.6.8

Thanks,
Dave

 

[SDub90]

Do you have the "put hard disks to sleep when possible" option checked or unchecked?

 

[dp.ucsd]

tried with it checked and with it unchecked. same behavior.

 

[brand]

Have you tried using the VPN capabilities that are built into Mac OS instead of the Cisco third party software?

 

[ZipZap]

Which type of sleep and how long is the lid closed?

Once the WIFI connection is closed you will loose VPN.

So when your screen goes black...thats one type of sleep (screen saver/power saver mode)
Another is hybernation when almost everything is shut down.

 

[dp.ucsd]

When I tried the built-in VPN, I get the error message:

"No VPN shared secret was provided. Verify your settings and try reconnecting."

I assume this has something to do with the VPN configuration's Authentication settings? In any case, our institutional IT people said that they only support the Cisco VPN client.

----------

Yes, I'm familiar with the different levels of sleep at a conceptual level. Not sure of the details of which one is implemented by which trigger. The implication in my original post is that these two ways of instigating some form of "sleep" are different. The comparison was prompted by a suggestion from our IT staff to test it. Of course if the Wifi is dropped I expect to lose the VPN connection.

My *original* goal was to have VPN *reconnect automatically* after, for example, closing the lid, walking around within same WIFI network (i.e. lid closed for 1-10 minutes), then opening lid. I've searched forums, etc. ad nauseum and haven't found a simple solution. The reviews of Caffeine, Insomniax, and Sleepless look quite varied, and I remain unclear which would be the best for my need.

 

[brand]

When I tried the built-in VPN, I get the error message:

"No VPN shared secret was provided. Verify your settings and try reconnecting."

That is because you didn't provide the VPN shared secret when setting it up.

 

[dp.ucsd]

So would I need to ask our IT staff if they could configure a VPN client with a shared secret wrapped into it somehow, or would I ask them for values for the parameters for the Authentication settings (e.g. shared secret or certificate) ?

Relatedly, is there reason to believe that the Mac OS X built in VPN client would automatically reconnect after lid close/open when the Cisco client does not?