PPTP does not work from iPhone 6 using the new Verizon fios quantum wireless router
deebeedee
Enthusiast - Level 3

I recently started new Verizon FIOS service at home.

I was provided the new Quantum FIOS router.

UI Version: 1.0.112
Firmware Version 0.17.52
Model Name: FiOS-G1100
Hardware Version: 1.03

I am facing a very unique issue.

I have to connect to my workplace using a simple PPTP connection.

If I have a PC wired into the router, OR if I am using a laptop wirelessly, I am ABLE to connect to my office using PPTP.

But when I try to connect using my iPhone 6 64GB, iOS 8.1.2 12B440, AT&T, it does not connect !!

I have deleted the PPTP connection on the iPhone, reset network settings, recreated the PPTP connection.

But nothing helps.

The moment I disable Wi-fi, the same PPTP connection WORKS using LTE, But does not work if Wi-fi is ON.

From that very same iPhone, I am able to successfully connect via PPTP VPN from other Wi-fi locations like: friends place, or comcat xfinity or starbucks or public wi-fi locations.

Simple: PPTP does not work when I am at home using this QUANTUM FIOS router!

Any suggestions out there?

Is there some weird bug ??

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Re: PPTP does not work from iPhone 6 using the new Verizon fios quantum wireless router
deebeedee
Enthusiast - Level 3

This issue appears to be been RESOLVED after the router upgraded its firmware

Today am at around 1 am ET, the router got upgraded.

Old version for reference was

UI Version: 1.0.112
Firmware Version 0.17.52
Model Name: FiOS-G1100
Hardware Version: 1.03

Now the New version shows this:

UI Version: v1.0.138

Firmware Version 0.26.29
Model Name: FiOS-G1100
Hardware Version: 1.03

I am now able to use PPTP from my iPhone!

So looks like they knew about this issue and fixed it.

I will surely test this from other iOS devices and android tablets, but I am sure they fixed it.

Accourding to this link these were the new enhancements....

"Fios Quantum Gateway 1.1 Enhancements
On 01/22/15 residential customers will now have the ability to have guest wifi, enhanced parental controls and the ability to manage the gateway from the MyFIOS app.

"

It does not show the bug fixes, but I am sure they fixed this PPTP issue!

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Re: PPTP does not work from iPhone 6 using the new Verizon fios quantum wireless router
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

Many home routers have software firewalls, and use ALG (Application Layer Gateway) methods to allow tunnelling protocols like PPTP to work. More often than not, I find these functions are broken.

Log into the Quantum gateway at http://192.168.1.1/ using the login information found on the back of the router. Once logged in, go to the Advanced settings and look for an ALG section. I would suggest disabling all of the ALG options which will stop the router from behaving as a man-in-the-middle when handling the connection. I would also make sure the router's Firewall is set to Off or Low, at the maximum.

I'm generalizing here as I have not see the Quantum Gateway's configuration pages yet.

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Re: PPTP does not work from iPhone 6 using the new Verizon fios quantum wireless router
deebeedee
Enthusiast - Level 3

@Smith6612 wrote:

Many home routers have software firewalls, and use ALG (Application Layer Gateway) methods to allow tunnelling protocols like PPTP to work. More often than not, I find these functions are broken.

Log into the Quantum gateway at http://192.168.1.1/ using the login information found on the back of the router. Once logged in, go to the Advanced settings and look for an ALG section. I would suggest disabling all of the ALG options which will stop the router from behaving as a man-in-the-middle when handling the connection. I would also make sure the router's Firewall is set to Off or Low, at the maximum.

I'm generalizing here as I have not see the Quantum Gateway's configuration pages yet.


I am able to VPN using a wired connection, OR from a laptop (wirelessly).

JUST NOT FROM an iPhone 6.

Since wired and wireless connections use the same firewall, I dont see "disabling ALG" or "setting firewall to low" as a solution.

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Re: PPTP does not work from iPhone 6 using the new Verizon fios quantum wireless router
deebeedee
Enthusiast - Level 3

Furthermore testing that I have done:

Since the FIOS quantum router runs on 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz as well, I named the 2 SSID's different, for example 2.4ghz network is called SLOW, and 5Ghz  is called FAST.

And on my iPhone, the VPN does not work

- when i connect to the SLOW network

or

- when i connect to the FAST network.

So some bug related to frequency can be ruled out.

This is really weird.

Dont know what this problem could be.....

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Re: PPTP does not work from iPhone 6 using the new Verizon fios quantum wireless router
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

@deebeedee wrote:

@Smith6612 wrote:

Many home routers have software firewalls, and use ALG (Application Layer Gateway) methods to allow tunnelling protocols like PPTP to work. More often than not, I find these functions are broken.

Log into the Quantum gateway at http://192.168.1.1/ using the login information found on the back of the router. Once logged in, go to the Advanced settings and look for an ALG section. I would suggest disabling all of the ALG options which will stop the router from behaving as a man-in-the-middle when handling the connection. I would also make sure the router's Firewall is set to Off or Low, at the maximum.

I'm generalizing here as I have not see the Quantum Gateway's configuration pages yet.


I am able to VPN using a wired connection, OR from a laptop (wirelessly).

JUST NOT FROM an iPhone 6.

Since wired and wireless connections use the same firewall, I dont see "disabling ALG" or "setting firewall to low" as a solution.


I was suggesting checking those settings since it can break specific devices, not all of them. For example, I've seen some types of devices break when using Cisco AnyConnect (An SSL-based client) behind 2wire AT&T U-Verse Gateways when used on a Macintosh laptop, but not break when dealing with Windows or a smartphone. A workaround that would be applied was to drop the MTU of the VPN interface to something rediculous and change the DNS servers.

Before the AnyConnect days, I also had the pleasure of dealing with the Cisco VPN Client, that used IPSec. By default, UDP datagrams were used to carry VPN Data by the client. Some networks, mostly at Hotels, and some buggy home networks, required that we set the client to use TCP instead due to the networks trying to hand-hold or MITM the data when UDP was used. Most routers have an IPSec ALG setting that would have to be disabled for Cisco VPN Client to actually work right.

If PPTP ALG is enabled on the router, it could very well be breaking this. It sounds like you have ruled out the router's own firewall being enabled though.

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Re: PPTP does not work from iPhone 6 using the new Verizon fios quantum wireless router
deebeedee
Enthusiast - Level 3

@Smith6612 wrote:

@deebeedee wrote:

@Smith6612 wrote:

Many home routers have software firewalls, and use ALG (Application Layer Gateway) methods to allow tunnelling protocols like PPTP to work. More often than not, I find these functions are broken.

Log into the Quantum gateway at http://192.168.1.1/ using the login information found on the back of the router. Once logged in, go to the Advanced settings and look for an ALG section. I would suggest disabling all of the ALG options which will stop the router from behaving as a man-in-the-middle when handling the connection. I would also make sure the router's Firewall is set to Off or Low, at the maximum.

I'm generalizing here as I have not see the Quantum Gateway's configuration pages yet.


I am able to VPN using a wired connection, OR from a laptop (wirelessly).

JUST NOT FROM an iPhone 6.

Since wired and wireless connections use the same firewall, I dont see "disabling ALG" or "setting firewall to low" as a solution.


I was suggesting checking those settings since it can break specific devices, not all of them. For example, I've seen some types of devices break when using Cisco AnyConnect (An SSL-based client) behind 2wire AT&T U-Verse Gateways when used on a Macintosh laptop, but not break when dealing with Windows or a smartphone. A workaround that would be applied was to drop the MTU of the VPN interface to something rediculous and change the DNS servers.

Before the AnyConnect days, I also had the pleasure of dealing with the Cisco VPN Client, that used IPSec. By default, UDP datagrams were used to carry VPN Data by the client. Some networks, mostly at Hotels, and some buggy home networks, required that we set the client to use TCP instead due to the networks trying to hand-hold or MITM the data when UDP was used. Most routers have an IPSec ALG setting that would have to be disabled for Cisco VPN Client to actually work right.

If PPTP ALG is enabled on the router, it could very well be breaking this. It sounds like you have ruled out the router's own firewall being enabled though.


I understand.

I am going to check the settings again.

Not very hopeful though.

My CISCO ASA and checkpoint experience is useless against these not-so-easy-to-customize-firewalls.

🙂

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Re: PPTP does not work from iPhone 6 using the new Verizon fios quantum wireless router
deebeedee
Enthusiast - Level 3

I did a lot more testing now.

PPTP does not work even through an android tablet.

So basically PPTP does not work from iPhone 5, iPhone 6, Nexus 7 tablet, iPad with 8.1.1 or iPad mini with 8.1.2.

Bottom line to me, sounds like: PPTP is not working from any SMARTPHONE or smart tablet through the verizon fios quantum gateway

The same PPTP connection WORKS in the following scenarios

- ANY WIFI !!!! (comcast, public wifi, even works with verizon fios actiontec based router based wifi)

So I can guaranteedly say that the new verizon fios quantum gateway has a serious bug or something.

There are no customizable firewall settings OR application layer gateway settings on this firewall.

Even disabling FIREWALL does not help.

Just as a reminder: The weird thing is PPTP DOES WORK, using a wired connection, and also works wirelessly from a laptop. JUST NOT FROM ANY SMARTPHONE OR TABLET.

I am now going to escalate in Verizon.

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Re: PPTP does not work from iPhone 6 using the new Verizon fios quantum wireless router
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

Good to know, useful info for the future. 🙂

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Re: PPTP does not work from iPhone 6 using the new Verizon fios quantum wireless router
coair73x
Enthusiast - Level 2

I don`t use pptp for work but I was testing it on my ipad and iphone and andriod device to watch the euronews app and same issue. Works on LTE fine. I was able to get it to work with openvpn. Hopfully this can be fixed with an update. 

0 Likes
Re: PPTP does not work from iPhone 6 using the new Verizon fios quantum wireless router
deebeedee
Enthusiast - Level 3

This issue appears to be been RESOLVED after the router upgraded its firmware

Today am at around 1 am ET, the router got upgraded.

Old version for reference was

UI Version: 1.0.112
Firmware Version 0.17.52
Model Name: FiOS-G1100
Hardware Version: 1.03

Now the New version shows this:

UI Version: v1.0.138

Firmware Version 0.26.29
Model Name: FiOS-G1100
Hardware Version: 1.03

I am now able to use PPTP from my iPhone!

So looks like they knew about this issue and fixed it.

I will surely test this from other iOS devices and android tablets, but I am sure they fixed it.

Accourding to this link these were the new enhancements....

"Fios Quantum Gateway 1.1 Enhancements
On 01/22/15 residential customers will now have the ability to have guest wifi, enhanced parental controls and the ability to manage the gateway from the MyFIOS app.

"

It does not show the bug fixes, but I am sure they fixed this PPTP issue!