Forticlient VPN on MacOS not working

[jsalcedo]

Hi all, 

I've been using Forticlient VPN for a while on my M1 MacOS and it worked perfectly. Suddenly, when I try to connec through VPN it always come the same error: "Network error. The request timed out."

I've tried with firewall off and different networks and still it doesn´t work. I also have total access to disk and network extensions on for Forticlient. 

Do you know what could be? 

Thanks!! 

[AEK]

Hi Salcedo

Is it SSL VPN or IPsec?

Did you recently patch your FortiGate?

What is the current FortiOS version?

Does it work on Windows, Linux or Android?

[jsalcedo]

Hi AEK, 

it is SSL VPN, I don't use Fortigate, just Forticlient VPN- Only. I am using now the version 7.4.3 of the software. I've tried to run it on Windows and works fine, on my Mac M1 (2020, Tahoe 26.0.1) is not working anymore. 

I think I have all the permissions ok, but something is missing. I've checked the extensions and found only 2, I think I am missing the proxy one but can´t find a way to install it.

[AEK]

If the remote VPN server is not FortiGate then what is it?

You may also need the support of the VPN server admin to support you, at least by checking if your VPN traffic is actually reaching the VPN server.

[jsalcedo]

Honestly, I don´t know what is my VPN server... 

What I've done, and don´t know if it will help, is look for the ip of the gateway on the terminal, and once I've done it I've checked if that ip was working. I ping it and works perfectly fine.

It seems that somehow forticlient is "isolated from internet" on the computer... Doesn´t matter the credentials I put, it keeps thinking until the error pops up: the request timed out

[AEK]

Then as first step you can still sniff the traffic on your MacOS to see if it is sending connection requests to the remote VPN gateway, and if the VPN gateway is replying.

[jsalcedo]

I've tried that and I see that I can send packages to the host ip address with no problem. I've used the nslookup for getting the ipaddress of the host and then traceroute. And I see traffic with no problem. 

Also, when I see the log, I have something like this (which doesn´t help that much): 

So far I've checked the computer is able to send information to the host correctly, but the Forticlient is not able to work

[jsalcedo · Accepted solution]

I think I've found a solution! If I use the IP on Forticlient instead the host address as gateway it works perfectly. 

I don´t know why but it does, so if any of you suffer a similar problem please try this solution

Thanks AEK for your help!!