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Ticket #160 (assigned enhancement)

Opened 3 years ago

Last modified 3 years ago

AlmostVPN doesn't retry to connect after a network failure

Reported by: nagel@in.tum.de Assigned to: andrei (accepted)
Priority: normal Milestone: AlmostVPN 1.0 Future
Component: PreferencePanel Version: 0.9
Severity: normal Keywords: sleep connect
Cc:

Description

AlmostVPN version 0.9.14 Mac OS X version 10.4.6

AlmostVPN doesn't retry to connect when a connection fails. Steps to reproduce:

1. Activate AlmostVPN. Status should be "Running" afterwards 2. Break current network connection (e.g. pull ethernet cable or disable AirPort?) 3a. Do not reconnect for some time, e.g. an hour (work offline, commute, whatever) OR 3b. Move to another network (e.g. from home to office) 4. AlmostVPN will have stopped by now, indicating a failure of the current profile 5. Reconnect to the Internet 6. AlmostVPN will not reactivate without user intervention

There should be an option to have AlmostVPN retry to connect every n seconds (or minutes) in case of a failure. Whenever I take my Powerbook from my home to my office, I have to open up System Preferences, start AlmostVPN and enter my keychain password. This is quite annoying.

Change History

05/21/06 22:41:25 changed by andrei

  • keywords set to sleep connect.
  • status changed from new to assigned.
  • milestone set to AlmostVPN 1.0.

This problem will be addressed partially in AlmostVPN v 1.0. As of next beta (due in a couple of days), AlmostVPN 1.0 will react properly on Sleep. So if you will assume that scenario where - person connect to the network, work, than close computer (make it sleep), than move to different location, than open computer - is quite common, than AlmostVPN will provide seamless experience. On "will sleep" it will shutdown all profiles (and remember which profiles were running), later on "did wake up" it will attempt to start all profiles which were running before sleep.

Other improvement built-in into v 1.0 is that it will never ask your keychain password more than once per reboot. So if you keep your computer running none-stop (sleep is OK), than you will need to enter your password only once.

Personally I do not feel that it is a good idea to let AlmostVPN keep retrying to establish connection unattended. Opening connection may have serious side effects ( for example from financial and/or security point of view ), so I feel user should be involved. I am sure that with proper reaction on Sleep/Wakeup AlmostVPN v 1.0 will be able to solve your particular problem without resorting to "unattended connection re-establishment)

05/22/06 02:18:34 changed by nagel@in.tum.de

That sounds like it will solve my problem IF it can be configured to connect on wakeup even if the last attempt failed. See, I disconnect at home (->sleep), work in the train (->wakeup), but as there's no net connection, AlmostVPN surely will fail. Then I leave the train (->sleep), go to my office and connect (->wakeup). If AlmostVPN "remembers" the last failure and doesn't try again, I'm at the same point as before.

Another issue is that my home connection is WLAN, office is Ethernet. So when I return from my office, there is no network on wakeup, because I have to unlock the machine and activate AirPort? first. That means it will take 20 to 40 seconds after wakeup until the net is actually available. AlmostVPN will probably have failed by then.

I understand your concerns about automatic reconnect. In my setting, there are no side effects (neither security not financial), so all I'm asking for is a configuration option that's turned off by default.