Permanent VPN connection in Windows

Windows does not really offer any good ways of setting up a permanent VPN connection that is stable.

A pretty nice solution to this problem by combining

• Windows Powershell
• Windows VPN Client
• Windows Task scheduler

1. Set up a new VPN Connection. Just follow the usual “Connect to a workplace” wizard. Make sure that the VPN connection works.
2. After creating the connection – set Redialing properties.

• Redeal attempts - 99
• Time between redial attempts - 1 minute
• Idle time before handing up - never
• Redial if line is dropped - ticket

3. Uncheck “Use default gateway on remote network” – in order to prevent all network/internet trafic to go through the VPN (unless this is what you want).

4.Since the Redial functionality of the VPN Connection isn’t trustable – it’s best to deal with this yourself. It’s powershell time. Create c:\vpn.ps1 and add the following:

$ip = "10.20.30.40"
$result = gwmi -query "SELECT * FROM Win32_PingStatus WHERE Address = '$ip'"
if ($result.StatusCode -eq 0) {
    Write-Host "$ip is up."
}
else{
    Write-Host "$ip is down."
    Write-Host "Disconnecting..."
    rasdial.exe DegreeVPN /DISCONNECT
    Write-Host "Connecting..."
    rasdial.exe DegreeVPN vpnUsername vpnPassword12345
}

The script pings an IP that should be available through the VPN. If the ping is unsucecssfull – the connection is reestablished. You can also set up routes here (and get notifications by email every time the VPN was disconnected) if you add a few more lines to the script.

5. Start up a powershell and type “Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted” order to allow the script to be executed.

6. Schedule this script to execute at startup (no user/login necessary) and also every 5 minutes.