| title | author | date | summary |
|---|---|---|---|
SonicWall NetExtender 2016 on macOS Mojave |
Jeremy |
2019-06-18 |
Replacing VPN software with outdated versions for fun and profit. |
Platform: Mac
SonicWall Mobile Connect is a VPN client for SonicWall VPN appliances. Unfortunately for me, I have been experiencing some rather annoying, intermittent drop outs when connecting in from home.
When these drop outs do occur, pinging any host within the private network times out. But... if I leave the ping running for a few more minutes... the pings eventually do begin to return - but taking riddiculously long times (i.e. 10000ms+).
To remedy this, I've been disconnecting and re-connecting from the VPN throughout the day whenever this issue occurs. Practically speaking, this means for me re-entering my password multiple times a day and restarting a bunch of services which had lost connection to some internal hosts.
For many months I suspected it was my internet connection (Optus Cable - who btw have promised to credit me back a few weeks after some rather bad outages - still waiting!). But my speedtest.net results are fine even during these supposed drop outs!? That also rules out my home network (2nd hand UniFi AP 1st gen and MikroTik router)
After some googling and research I've discovered that the SonicWall Mobile Connect software is the replacement of the discontinued SonicWall NetExtender - the predecessor VPN client software from the people at SonicWall.
SonicWall NetExtender was last updated in 2016... but I couldn't help but try it!
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Install NetExtender. It is a bit tricky to find a download link. This one works okay: https://rahsupport.weebly.com/ (NetExtender 8.1.788.dmg)
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Disable rootless system integrity protection http://osxdaily.com/2015/10/05/disable-rootless-system-integrity-protection-mac-os-x/ . I already had done this to make HiDPI work on my U2515H (sheesh the joys of using a mac!) https://comsysto.github.io/Display-Override-PropertyList-File-Parser-and-Generator-with-HiDPI-Support-For-Scaled-Resolutions/
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Use this script to start the GUI. (Launching the application directly fails with an 'Unable to load Java Runtime Environment.' error, and trust me I know I have JRE installed!)
#!/bin/sh
sudo chmod u+s /usr/sbin/pppd
open /Applications/.../
(Thanks to http://www.seanlabrie.com/2011/osx-10-6-7-update-breaks-sonicwall-net-extender-again/)
Amazingly, the application works!
After some experimentation I found that SonicWall NetExtender actually performs better!
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Pinging the same host within the private network now takes less time (9ms-30ms) consistently.
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Editing files over Vim / SSH / VPN feels much better than before (placebo effect?)... hopefully thanks to better VPN performance.
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No 'drop outs' yet.
So in conclusion, using the discontinued SonicWall NetExtender software actually performs better and is more reliable (perhaps becase the VPN appliance on the other end is outdated, or NetExtender's packets are less senstive to ISP firewall gremlins? 😂).