The Event Viewer Login problems

85 Figure 5-12. An unsuccessful VPN connection in the Event Viewer The Event Viewer can also be used to obtain useful information about successful logins, including username, port number, time connected, port speed, and bytes sent and received. Figure 5-13 shows some of the successful connection information reported by the Event Viewer. Figure 5-13. Logout information from a successful VPN session

5.6.1.2 The Dial-Up Networking Monitor

The Dial-Up Networking Monitor is found from the Start menu under Programs Administrative Tools. It can be used to watch the status of an incoming or connected call. Not only can you watch for authentication problems, you can also see if any packets are being sent or received, and look for any connectivity errors in the Device errors section. See Figure 5-14 for the information displayed. 86 Figure 5-14. Dial-Up Networking Monitor

5.6.2 Connectivity Testing

If your PPTP client is having trouble dialing in, one of the first things to check is connectivity. This includes the PPP connectivity between your client and your ISP, and between your dial- up ISP and the ISP to which the RAS server is connected. Note that connectivity testing will work only for connections where youre dialing into an ISP that doesnt support PPTP. Thats because in the cases where youre dialing into a provider that does support PPTP, youre not really connected until youre authenticated by the RAS server. If that much can happen, theres nothing wrong with the connectivity.

5.6.2.1 ping and traceroute

The best way to test connectivity is to run the ping command from the Start Run menu item. After youve connected to the ISP, you can attempt to ping the RAS server with the following command: PING IP address of RAS server In our case, you would attempt to ping 2.1.1.60. If you get a successful return, your connectivity is okay. If you dont, you should try to ping something else on the Internet for which you know the IP address or hostname—an excellent test would be your ISPs DNS servers. If you can ping something else on the other side of your connection, but you cant ping your RAS server, the problem could be one of the following: • Youve been disconnected. Sometimes it happens that a modem will disconnect you, but Dial-Up Networking will still report you as connected. If you have an external