Personally, I think it is a crock that there isn' t a way for Windows XP to support multiple VPN clients at the same time. I could understand not having more than one active VPN connection due to port requirements, but the software itself should be able to coexist on an individual machine. It may be a limitation to some windows APIs, or poorly written code on behalf of the VPN client vendors out there. The answer that it can' t be done is not acceptable in today' s environment. One way or another, possibly with the help/cooperation of Micro$oft themselves, it would be possible to get this sort of software to play nicely together. From a network administrator standpoint, who will likely face multiple vendor' s VPN client software out there in heterogeneous networks, it is a nightmare waiting for one to come across. When I had the issue, I asked Fortinet to at least check for the known VPN clients out there (I would imagine Cisco is at least in the top ten)...shouldn' t take much more than parsing through some registry entries I wouldn' t think and would save a lot of people time.
BTW, the only way I' ve found to completely clear the system up is to format/reload, else you get " sticky" entries in device manager referencing " Fortidrv - Miniport" . Systems do seem to function fine otherwise. At least this has been my experience....if anyone knows an easier way to get rid of them, I' d appreciate you sharing it with the rest of us in the forum.
Also...FYI, this sort of thing does rear its ugly head if you install FortClient first on a new install of the OS, then install the Cisco VPN software...so it would probably take all the VPN client vendors out there to take the initiative to fix this sort of incompatibility issue. I guess the gist of it is that Fortinet is not the issue here, seems to be an industry/windows problem that should be corrected by all those involved.
Perhaps a SSL VPN solution would elevate this sort of issue. I have not researched it, but I know when I first purchased one of their firewalls, there was some discussion from them that they are evidently pursuing the trend.
One thing that really bothers me is that there is no mention of this sort of issue in the knowledge base. If someone types in “cisco vpn clientâ€, one of the first hits should be a mention/warning of the ramifications that can happen if you install both on the same system…and the procedures to fix the issue. After contacting Fortinet about the issue, they did provide me with some “special†uninstall programs that at least got the NIC interfaces back (required a reinstall of drivers for the NICs though). I' ve found that the LSP fix sort of programs also let you get the NICs back into working order (also with a reinstall of their respective drivers).
Thank you for reading my rant 
