Posts tagged WINDOWS

Juniper Network Connect GINA Issues with Windows XP

0
April 22, 2011
by Michael McNamara in ,

We utilize Juniper’s Network Connect client to provide connectivity over a broadband Internet connection for all our remote call center agents. We recently had an issue where the Network Connect client couldn’t enable it’s GINA integration with Windows XP. The GINA automatically launches the Network Connect sign-in function at every Windows user sign-in. This provides the users a single sign-on capability to both log into Windows XP and establish remote connectivity.

Upon our first connection to the Juniper SSL Secure Access appliance we were prompted to install the Network Connect client. During that installation the client prompted us to enable the GINA functionality but then returned the following error, “Network Connect is configured to start when Windows starts, but this function cannot be enabled due to a conflict with another Windows application (nc.windows.app.23679)”.

We currently use both PointSec and Courion internally so I originally suspected one of these application although I quickly discovered that neither of these applications where installed. So I fired up Regedit and went looking to see which GINA was installed other than the default Microsoft GINA.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Under the GinaDLL registry key I found “awgina.dll” configured which is the GINA for Symantec’s pcAnywhere. I deleted the registry key (while pcAnywhere was installed we weren’t using it’s GINA capabilities) , uninstalled the Juniper Network Connect client and rebooted the laptop. I ran back through the installation again was this time I was successfully able to enable the GINA capabilities of the Network Connect client. I’m not 100% sure that you need to remove the client and re-install it although that was the safest course of action at the time for me.

Here are some of the more popular GINAs in the industry;

  • Cisco VPN client (csgina.dll)
  • Microsoft GINA (msgina.dll)
  • Nortel Networks VPN client (nngina.dll)
  • RSA SecurID (aceGina.dll)
  • Novell GINA (nwgina.dll)
  • pcAnywhere32 (awgina.dll)
  • IBM Fingerprint GINA (vrlogon.dll)
  • Pointsec GINA (pssogina.dll)
  • Courion Password Reset (ssogina.dll)
  • Juniper Network Connect (dsNcGina.dll)

Cheers!

References;

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321031

http://www.juniper.net/techpubs/software/ive/admin/6.5-ClientSideChanges.pdf

 

 

Juniper Secure Access SSL VPN Software 6.5R2 is a winner

3
February 23, 2010
by Michael McNamara in

Juniper Networks logoIf you’ve been following this blog you’ll know that we’ve had quite a few issues with our Juniper Secure Access SSL VPN appliances over the past two years.  Juniper was very slow to add WSAM support for Windows Vista 64-bit and by the time they started supporting Windows Vista, Windows 7 was released by Microsoft.

You might recall that I wrote about software release 6.5R2 back in December 2009, detailing our troubles with the 6.5R1 software release and our hope that Juniper could save the day.

Thankfully I’m hear to tell that software release 6.5R2 for the Juniper Secure Access SSL VPN appliances appears to be a winner!

About six days ago I upgraded a pair of SA4000s running 6.5R1 to 6.5R2. The primary goal was to resolve the compatibility issues that were introduced in 6.5R1 and finally provide support for both Windows Vista 64-bit and Windows 7 64-bit. The actually upgrade of the appliances was pretty straight forward and the initial testing didn’t reveal any issues. Unfortunately there’s no amount of testing can always predict how things will go when working with home personal computers and the myriad of software available. We waited nervously for the first few days… thankfully the calls never came. While we had one or two users that needed some hand holding during the software upgrade/installation process, the majority of our 800+ users didn’t seem to have any issues whatsoever.

Let me congratulate Juniper Networks on a job well done!

I’ve created discussion forum for anyone that would like to discuss the Juniper Secure Access SSL VPN appliances. If you have a question or would like to make a comment why not join the discussion?

Cheers!

Nortel IP 2050 Softphone and Windows Vista

0
August 11, 2008
by Michael McNamara in

ip_softphone_2050_317x474 Nortel has just released a support bulletin documenting a problem (CR Q1863946) between the Nortel IP 2050 v2 (and v1.4) and Windows Vista that can affect the audio quality. Nortel is advising users to modify the audio quality within the IP 2050 Softphone application (File -> Settings -> Audio) to a setting of 4 or higher. Nortel IP 2050 v1.4 users must also use the Vista Service Manager to disable QoS on the desktop/laptop. There is no mention of the IP 2050 v3 Softphone in the bulletin so I would guess that version is not affected.

We’ve been using the IP 2050 v2 for connecting to our Nortel Succession 1000M Call Servers with very good success. It’s very reliable and the audio quality has been excellent. I should point out that we lease our corporate laptops with a 24 month refresh so we always have decent hardware to work with. And it doesn’t hurt when you have a Gigabit network backbone from Nortel of course.

We’ve held off deploying the IP 2050 v3 because of the new licensing server that is required although we can’t fault Nortel for moving towards such a solution. While we’ve been very honest in our purchasing and deploying of the IP 2050 softphone I can only guess how many others out there haven’t been so honest. If you’re interested in the Nortel IP 2050 just don’t forget that you’ll need to purchase a copy of the Nortel IP 2050 software along with an Internet IP User ISM (license) for each user.

You may also want to evaluate Microsoft Office Communications Server before you deploy the IP 2050 in any large numbers. We’ve started testing OCS in our lab and we’re hoping to start evaluating it’s voice and video conferencing capabilities in the next few months. You’ll probably still want to use the Nortel IP 2050 Softphone for any Nortel Contact Center (Symposium) agents but for basic voice, instant messaging and video conferencing OCS looks very promising.

Cheers!

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