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Mike
Asked: 2013-09-10 19:54:48 +0800 CST

How do I get SonicWALL Global VPN to work with Windows 8.1?

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I have been running SonicWALL Global VPN v4.7.3.0403 on Windows 8 without trouble for more than a year. Today I upgraded to Windows 8.1 RTM and noticed that it disabled my Global VPN connection. I tried to repair the situation by uninstalling and reinstalling Global VPN, but that suddenly caused my computer to lose all network connectivity whatsoever. I uninstalled Global VPN again and connectivity was restored. At this point it appears that Global VPN v4.7.3.0403 is incompatible with Windows 8.1. Has anyone figured out a way to make it work?

Here are some links to others who appear to be having the same problem:

vpn

4 Answers

  1. I contacted SonicWALL chat support and they provided me with a beta of a Windows 8.1-compatible Global VPN which reports itself as v4.8.6.0826. So far it appears to be working, although I did need to enable DHCP-over-VPN and set the VPN's virtual adapter to "DHCP Lease" (which assigns IP addresses to connected VPN clients) before I was able to remote desktop to any machines behind the firewall.

    I also verified with SonicWALL technical support that the client that comes built-in to Windows 8.1 uses SSL VPN (compared to Global VPN which uses IPsec).

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  2. Best Answer

    Upgrade to version 4.8.6.0826 which you can download from https://www.mysonicwall.com/firmware/FreeDownloads.aspx once you've become a registered member.

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  3. I wasn't able to get Global VPN Client working, but...There is a SonicWall client built into Windows 8.1 and it works for me. There are some directions here.

    http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/dellsolves/b/weblog/archive/2013/09/05/mobility-for-business-built-in-to-windows-8-1.aspx

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  4. I just solved this after an hour of fiddling with my Windows 10 settings, and I'm sharing it with you in case it's useful

    1) Uninstall SonicWall. Both AppStore and classic apps can coexiste, I've uninstalled both. Reboot your PC

    2) From SonicWall's support page, download the 'GVCUtil' cleanup utility. Run it, and remove all configuration files and perform a full cleanup.

    3) Reboot your PC and re-install the SonicWall client (It's worked for me with release 4.9.4.0306). It will show some error messages while installing, saying it's not able to remove/disable a virtual adapter. Still, go ahead and finish installing

    4) Looking at the logs, I saw SonicWall was trying to enable a virtual adapter with a non-existent MAC, so I used GVCUtil to generate a new one.

    5) Create a new connection in SonicWall client, try to connect and see if it works.

    At this point, in my case it was complaining about a stopped IPSec driver and a stopped Virtual NIC. To start the IPSec driver, first start the IPSec Windows Service and then click the [Start IPSec] option in GVCutil.

    To enable the virtual NIC, open an Explorer window and look for the SWVNIC folder. In my PC it's in [C:\Program Files\Dell SonicWALL\Global VPN Client\SWVNIC]. Right click on the [netSWVNIC.inf] file and select [Install]. Once it's done, go back to GVCUtil and click on the [Start Virtual NIC] option.

    Now you should be able to connect to your VPN. Hope this helps!

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