Windows – VPN Keep-alive interval Settings

Some time ago we encountered a frustrating issue with a Watchguard MUVPN client dropping connection every 2 minutes

This happened connecting long distance to Hong Kong where latency definitely cause extra difficulties.

I got the solution handed out by my overseas friend.

Solution :

The reason was that the keep-alive settings protocol was blocked by the Windows client firewall.

Name: IKE Keep-Alive Messages-1

Port: 4500

Port: UDP

Environment: From your VPN-Gateway

Name: IKE Keep-Alive Messages-2

Port: 500

Port: UDP

Environment: From your VPN-Gateway

You can use the Netsh command for this as well.

Open the CMD as Admin and run these 2 commands.

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule dir=in name=”IKE Keep-Alive Messages-1″ Profile=Domain,Private protocol=UDP localport=4500 action=allow

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule dir=in name=”IKE Keep-Alive Messages-2″ Profile=Domain,Private protocol=UDP localport=500 action=allow

Create 2 firewall Inbound Exception Rules and there you go !

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