VPN vs BBO

[adf]

I connect to my work computer via a VPN (from Aventail). It works fine. Sometimes I play BBO. That works fine too (and is more fun). However, I cannot connect to BBO if I am already connected to my VPN.

 

Is there anything I can do differently to try to get them to be happy together?

 

If not, is there anything BBO is likely to do to help me?

 

If neither, at least more people know about the problem now and can suggest it to others who might be unable to connect.

[1eyedjack]

I am no techie but I fear that you are not going to be able to do this, short of loading the BBO client on the server at work, which the IT guys there might not appreciate.

 

I tried to do this quite a while back without success. I found that I could not connect to the Internet at all outside of and simultaneous to the VPN connection. It wasnt just BBO, I lost the whole gamut (unless I used the work's internet connection of course).

 

I took it up with the gurus on the Citrix newsgroup and they were the ones telling me I was flogging a dead horse. Don't ask me to explain why, just letting you know. There are quite a few on this board with "the knowledge", and if they contradict me I shall be only too delighted.

 

Will shortly be converting to a web-based Citrix server at work from the ICA/VPN. Be interesting to see whether that changes anything.

[DrTodd13]

Once you VPN, your machine is typically behind your company's firewall just as if it were hard-wired in the office. So, if you can't connect to BBO from work then you know what the problem is. Firewalls are usually circumventable though but it requires some skill.

[helene_t]

Firewalls are usually circumventable though but it requires some skill.

yes, try downloading one of those "make your own worm or virus" kits :-)

[paulg]

As DrTodd says, VPN software transforms your PC into a device that is the same as a system in the workplace. This means it sits behind the corporate firewall.

 

If you were able to access the Internet outside of the VPN software then you would be bypassing the corporate firewall and creating a gapping hole in your company's Internet security policy as people could connect to your PC and then hop into the company intranet without anyone noticing. Unsurprisingly VPN does not let this happen.

 

Circumventing the firewall without approval is a firing offence in companies. The only sensible way is to contact the IT department and ask if they can open a port in the firewall for you - according to the help file, BBO makes a single outbound connection on TCP port 9999 to bbo.bridgebase.com and this should be sufficient. Of course, in some companies making this request is not conducive to long term employment :)

 

Good luck

 

p

[scoob]

i've had luck in the past changing the port value in bbover.ini to something that isn't blocked by your firewall

 

[NETWORK]
ServerHostName1=bbo.bridgebase.com
ServerIPAddress1=69.93.3.164
ServerPort1=80

[barmar]

I believe BBO already tries port 80 automatically. But many firewalls expect port 80 traffic to be HTTP protocol, and BBO send its own, proprietary protocol over port 80 (it works with simple port filters, but not most SPI or proxy firewalls).

[uday]

What would happen if he connected to bbo first, then fired up the vpn ? Does the act of starting the vpn sever existing connections ?

[hrothgar]

What would happen if he connected to bbo first, then fired up the vpn ? Does the act of starting the vpn sever existing connections ?

In my experience this is dependent on the underlying software.

 

In some cases, VPN system will permit a user to create the equivalent of a routing table and specify a list of IP addresses that won't pass through the VPN.

[Finch]

What would happen if he connected to bbo first, then fired up the vpn ? Does the act of starting the vpn sever existing connections ?

I raised exactly this question about a year ago.

 

If his setup is anything like mine, then starting vpn does indeed sever the existing BBO connection. Mind you, it seems to have no effect on my internet connection, other than to make intranet addresses work. My work allow complete internet access anyway however, so I can't check to see if I am really accessing all the internet via the work firewall.

[skjaeran]

A year ago we changed to VPN at work. After that I couldn't use the BBO software locally. After some time I contacted the IT support people, and got it fixed. They opened up the firewall for the BBO software - no problem after that.

[Finch]

What nice IT people you have at work.

 

I can just imagine the reaction if I asked "please can you open a hole in the firewall so that I can log on to a bridge playing website from my work laptop"

[skjaeran]

Well, I work at the Norwegian Bridge Federation's headquarters. Surely I don't play bridge at work, but it's understandable that I on some instances could have need to follow our national teams in international championships. ;)