# vpnc "no response from target" Error [Solved]

## msmyth

I've been using the CISCO vpn client supplied through my work for some time. This software generally works fine for logging in to my work system, but every couple of kernel updates it stops working and I need to wait a year or so for CISCO to get around to fixing it.

I'm trying to switch to vpnc, which since it is in userspace presumably won't break every time I update the kernel. I worked through the Gentoo howto at http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/draft/vpnc-howto.xml to get the software installed. I copied over the configuration information from my existing CISCO configuration ".pcf" file. When I then try to start vpnc, I get the following error message:

```
vpnc: no response from target
```

Since I've copied everything from a working configuration file, I don't think there is anything wrong with my configuration information.

I've googled this error message, and although there are a number of people who've asked the same question as far as I can tell nobody has answered any of them. 

Has anybody else run into this problem and come up with a solution?Last edited by msmyth on Sun Jun 24, 2007 3:37 am; edited 1 time in total

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## ajaygautam

I have a working vpnc (0.4.0) connection with kernel 2.6.18-r5

Here is what my config file looks like (ids and password mangled):

```
$ cat /etc/vpnc.conf 

## generated by pcf2vpnc.pl

## Stefan Tomanek <stefan@pico.ruhr.de>

IPSec ID 6kalvpn

IPSec gateway vpn.mycompany.com

IPSec secret k219skhgs

Xauth username KDX\agautam

Xauth password G3nt00Rul3s

```

what does your config file looks like?

What happens when you ping your IPSec gateway entry?

Ajay

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## msmyth

Thanks for your response. I'm using vpnc 0.4.0 on kernel 2.6.17-r7.

My config file looks very similar to yours (also mangled):

```

IPSec gateway 192.123.45.67

IPSec ID blah

IPSec secret secret_blah

Xauth username smyth

```

Pinging my real IPSec gateway entry, I get a normal ping response, so I'm seeing the machine and it is responding. This is also the same machine used by the CISCO vpn software which works (read from my .pcf CISCO config file), so I know this is the correct gateway.

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## ajaygautam

One of the problems I face (usually after upgrading vpnc) is that it uses some other config file.

Try starting vpnc as:

```
vpnc /path/to/your/conf/file
```

See if that makes any difference. Let me know.

I have been using vpnc for a while now, and have helped a couple of coworkers set it up. And all have been using it fine!

Ajay

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## msmyth

Sorry, no dice. I tried

```
vpnc /etc/vpnc/default.conf
```

and I get the same "vpnc: no response from target" error. BTW, my config file doesn't have the password in it, so when I run it I get a message like:

```
Enter password for smyth@192.123.45.67:
```

Both the username and host printed out by vpnc are correct.

Just to see if it makes any difference, I have tried adding my password to the default.conf file. When I run vpnc I don't get the password message, but other than that vpnc acts the same way and returns "vpnc: no response from target"

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## ajaygautam

Well... one more thing I can think of...

Perhaps there is a problem causing character in the file... like an extra tab of something like that...

Try examining the od dump of the conf file to find out of there are any characters...

Ajay

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## msmyth

No, an od doesn't show anything suspicious. 

Thanks for trying to help with this - I'm stumped myself. There just doesn't seem to be all that much that go wrong, just a 4 line configuration file. Ah, the pleasures of Linux   :Wink: 

My best guess is our particular CISCO system uses some version or options of vpn that isn't supported by vpnc, but this is nothing more than a guess on my part.

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## msmyth

I finally managed to solve this problem. It turns out that a firewall either on my end or my companies was blocking traffic on port 500 (which is the default local port used by vpnc).  vpnc can be told to use another port. In my case, my cisco vpn software used port 10000 which was let through by firewalls. The configuration line to add to default.conf is:

```

Local Port 10000

```

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