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> Chapter 14 - IPsec VPN > Troubleshooting > VPN troubleshooting tips

VPN troubleshooting tips

More in-depth VPN troubleshooting can be found in the Troubleshooting guide.

Attempting hardware offloading beyond SHA1

If you are trying to off-load VPN processing to a network processing unit (NPU), remember that only SHA1 authentication is supported. For high levels of authentication such as SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512 hardware offloading is not an option — all VPN processing must be done in software.

Check Phase 1 proposal settings

Ensure that both sides have at least one Phase 1 proposal in common. Otherwise they will not connect. If there are many proposals in the list, this will slow down the negotiating of Phase 1. If its too slow, the connection may timeout before completing. If this happens, try removing some of the unused proposals.

NPU offloading is supported when the local gateway is a loopback interface.

Check your routing

If routing is not properly configured with an entry for the remote end of the VPN tunnel, traffic will not flow properly. You may need static routes on both ends of the tunnel. If routing is the problem, the proposal will likely setup properly but no traffic will flow.

Try enabling XAuth

If one end of an attempted VPN tunnel is using XAuth and the other end is not, the connection attempt will fail. The log messages for the attempted connection will not mention XAuth is the reason, but when connections are failing it is a good idea to ensure both ends have the same XAuth settings. If you do not know the other end’s settings enable or disable XAuth on your end to see if that is the problem.