Too much damn trouble

[mbmarsh]

I realize this will probably get me flamed, but.....

I am SO tired of having to spend hours rigging this damn thing in order to make stuff work. I have tried for several months now to get EITHER a Cisco VPN connection OR the Citrix receiver to work with my original Motorola Droid. I need one or the other to make this phone useful to me when I'm on-call.

Both of these problems have led to HOURS of constant web searching, reading hundreds of pages of non-relevant posts, and I'm no further along now than when I started.

I don't mind playing with things and experimenting to get them to work, but all the runarounds and backbends that we seem to have to do just to get this thing to work like it should in the first place have just about worn me out. Meanwhile, the iPhone (which I don't want to switch to) seems to work fine for all of these apps, without rooting and custom ROMs and all other kinds of hacks that leave you on the edge of bricking your phone every time you try anything.

Does this seem stupid to anyone else? Why won't the damn thing work like it should without the users having to do all the legwork???!!!

*vent*

 

[phatkat66]

You probably have but just to make sure, have you tried contacting the developers? Alot of the comments left behind seem to have been having the same trouble but ended up getting it to work and is happy with the end results. Hopefully the devs can help you out on this. Don't give up!

 

[mwhartman]

Prior to retiring, I needed to use the Cisco VPN to access the University wireless. At that time, I had an iPhone and adding the VPN was simple. I've not needed a VPN for my Droid so I contacted one of the sys admins, who has a Droid, to see if they can advise.

I'll let you know what he says.

Mike

 

[SGTiger]

Why won't the damn thing work like it should without the users having to do all the legwork???!!!

*vent*

Why won't it work like it should? Motorola Droid was advertised to work easily with a VPN or Citrix? I have seen these types of connections be difficult to setup on some laptops while having no problems with other laptops. If you *really* think the iphone never has problems with certain VPN connections, then why delay getting an iphone?

Regarding why users have "to do all the legwork", name one computer vendor like Dell, HP, or Gateway that is going to have your VPN/Citrix set-up for you and not require legwork on your part.

As a network engineer, I can assure you that every network out there is different in some way. There will never be a one-stop app that does it all for you and also work perfectly for every VPN you're trying to connect to.

 

[mbmarsh]

Let's see, the phone come with a built-in VPN app, so that would seem to be advertising that it works with corporate VPN, yet doesn't support the one VPN most companies use. The Citrix receiver apparently requires a PhD in Metaframe options, including certificates, rooting, and a whole bunch of terminal emulation commands.

I don't mind at all spending time to get things set up - I fully expect it. What I don't expect is to spend weeks of time trying to get something hacked to get it to work, reading through countless forum posts because nobody can be bothered to put together decent documentation.

The one thing everyone wants from these phones is the ability to substitute them for laptops, especially when we're on call. Toward that end, we either need Citrix working easily, or a VPN and RDP client working, yet neither seem to be readily available without literally hours of screwing around with the thing.

If anybody knows anything on either of these topics, please feel free to let me know. I don't want an iPhone (ATT sucks around here), but it has got to become easier to get these basic kinds of things working to make the Droid continue to be attractive.

 

[ruinah]

Let's see, the phone come with a built-in VPN app, so that would seem to be advertising that it works with corporate VPN, yet doesn't support the one VPN most companies use. The Citrix receiver apparently requires a PhD in Metaframe options, including certificates, rooting, and a whole bunch of terminal emulation commands.

I don't mind at all spending time to get things set up - I fully expect it. What I don't expect is to spend weeks of time trying to get something hacked to get it to work, reading through countless forum posts because nobody can be bothered to put together decent documentation.

The one thing everyone wants from these phones is the ability to substitute them for laptops, especially when we're on call. Toward that end, we either need Citrix working easily, or a VPN and RDP client working, yet neither seem to be readily available without literally hours of screwing around with the thing.

If anybody knows anything on either of these topics, please feel free to let me know. I don't want an iPhone (ATT sucks around here), but it has got to become easier to get these basic kinds of things working to make the Droid continue to be attractive.

I'm a Citrix guy so I've been around the block a little with Receiver. The first iteration was terrible and wouldn't connect to much. You do have to have the proper environment to make it work. Web interface 5, Access Gateway, and yes even certificates. How else could it be secure? A lot of receiver depends on newer technology so if your environment is older you may not be set up to utilize all of the newer tools.

I am in 100% agreement with the Cisco VPN issue though. The issue is most companies still deploy group authentication and the Droid doesn't do that. Even with root, it's a cluster to get it set up. That was a huge downfall when I got my droid because even my old crappy Winmo phone accessed the VPN ok. I have an iPod touch and the vpn client works flawlessly so I agree that there is a big difference there in the 2 technologies when it comes to VPN. Have you tried any of the VNC clients maybe so you can get in an do your sysadmin work without worrying about Receiver or VPN? Not sure if your company allows that sort of thing or not.

 

[velocity92c]

On the brink of bricking your phone? LOL. For someone who needs connection to a Cisco VPN or a citrix box, I would think you'd have a little more common sense than to say something like that. It is nearly impossible to brick a Droid. Using an unrooted phone with a stock ROM is just wasting your phone, period. I got my insurance replacement in the mail and I could barely even use the piece of junk until I had Sapphire loaded up on it.