Working from home is great! You have less distractions. You do not have to deal with the stress of driving to work and making sure you get there on time. You can wear your PJ pants all day. And if you are like me, you get to spend all day with your favorite furry friends. I mean who does not like to have an adorable little dog sitting within arm’s reach when you have a stressful meeting?
But the one thing that you cannot live without when working from home is VPN.
VPN, Meaning…
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and is your company’s way of ensuring that the connection from your cozy home to the resources at the office are secure.
One of the most widely used VPN’s is SonicWALL NetExtender. If your company uses this, you will want to keep on reading as I have put together a few items for you to be able to walk through if you are having issues getting it to connect.
How to use NetExtender on a Mac
Let us talk about Mac’s first. There is currently no MacOS version of NetExtender available, but that does not mean that all you Mac users are out of luck when it comes to working from home! Fear NOT! If you go to the App Store, you can search for SonicWall Mobile Connect and install it. This will allow you to connect to your office VPN and is used for Mac’s in place of NetExtender.
If you cannot see the process below, click here to see see how to use Sonic Wall Mobile Connect to use NetExtender and connect to your company’s VPN.
What to do if you get a “damaged version of NetExtender” message
Now let us talk about 2 common issues that you will see with NetExtender.
You got your coffee and your breakfast and go sit down at your computer to start your day. You turn on your computer and double click on NetExtender and you get an error that says, “A damaged version of NetExtender was detected on your computer, please reinstall NetExtender to fix the problem.” This error is due to a setting in Windows.
The cause is technical. It is a Driver signing verification in Windows 10 that causes version 8.6 of NetExtender to show as Damaged, so when Windows does not let it pass the HCK (Windows Hardware Certification Kit) testing.
If you cannot see the process below, click here to see what do when you get the “damaged version of NetExtender” message.
What to do if you get the “Windows Remote Access Service Error” message
The second most common issue is the Windows Remote Access Service Error. This is due to the SonicWall NetExtender Service not being started. This can happen at start-up of the machine, or it can stop working if it is not in use.
If you cannot see the process below, click here to see what do when you get the “Windows Remote Access Service Error” message.
What to do if you’re still having trouble with your VPN?
Of course, this is not a full list of things you might encounter, but rather these are the most common. If you have tried the steps above, are still having issues and you are a client of XL.net, please reach out to the Service Desk for additional troubleshooting steps.
If you are not a current client of XL.net, please reach out to our Sales Department to see how XL.net can help your company with all their IT needs!