News

Orange breaks virtual private networks - in trial to provide VPNs

Orange is looking for VPN volunteers. When the first GPRS networks were set up, they were secure from end to end. So it never occurred to the designers to wonder whether users might want security beyond each end. So virtual private networks weren't considered. Now, they are being studied.

Up until recently, if you plugged a GPRS card into a computer, you got a standard Internet address for the computer, and were on the Internet just like any ordinary computer.

One consultant who habitually used this feature was Nick Price, an Orange GPRS users who provided technical support for several users while on the road, using his laptop to VPN into their LANs.

Then, this July, suddenly and without any obvious reason, the VPN connection stopped working, completely.

Orange, asked for a possible explanation, retorted that they 'did not support' VPN connections. Price contacted NewsWireless.Net and we started a debate with Orange which revealed that there was a perfectly straightforward explanation: Orange was experimenting with providing facilities for virtual private networking.

In doing so, they broke it.

The explanation was elegant. In order to enable the service, the technical staff decided to institute port mapping. It broke the VPN tunnelling algorithm ...

"We're working on it" is the latest response from Orange. Trialists are being sought for the new VPN test service. Mail us - we'll forward your details to the people compiling the short list.