Hello David,
No, I didn't know the specific meaning of the error message - thanks for the info.
However ......... things get curiouser and curiouser.
I left the office for a couple of hours to do another job. On my return I decided to try the connections again - and guess what? - they worked.
I've changed nothing since this morning and so I'm at a complete loss to know what's going on here.
I noticed, however, that when the VPN was active all other paths to the internet ceased to function AND the remote server is not available in My Network Places. However, I guess that both of these can be solved with the appropriate settings.
On your comments about the routers I agree entirely. I had previously tried a DSL-504T and I swapped this out because I thought that it was blocking the GRE protocol messages. However, in light of the foregoing it's quite possible that it was working - we'll never know!
Here's the 'messages' output that I see now. You'll see that I first tried to log on as admin and got rejected as I expected. I then tried to log on as dumolod and got accepted - and this is what should have happened earlier!!! BTW, you don't happen to know what the WARNINGS mean, do you?
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: MGR: Launching /usr/sbin/pptpctrl to handle client
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: local address = 192.168.30.2
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: remote address = 192.168.30.246
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: pppd speed = 460800
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: pppd options file = /etc/ppp/options.pptpd
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Client 80.177.XXX.XXX control connection started
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 1)
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Made a START CTRL CONN RPLY packet
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: I wrote 156 bytes to the client.
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Sent packet to client
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 7)
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Set parameters to 1525 maxbps, 64 window size
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Made a OUT CALL RPLY packet
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Starting call (launching pppd, opening GRE)
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: pty_fd = 5
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: tty_fd = 6
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: I wrote 32 bytes to the client.
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Sent packet to client
cssl-server pptpd[26931]: CTRL (PPPD Launcher): Connection speed = 460800
cssl-server pptpd[26931]: CTRL (PPPD Launcher): local address = 192.168.30.2
cssl-server pptpd[26931]: CTRL (PPPD Launcher): remote address = 192.168.30.246
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 15)
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Got a SET LINK INFO packet with standard ACCMs
cssl-server pppd[26931]: pppd 2.4.2b1 started by root, uid 0
cssl-server pppd[26931]: Starting negotiation on /dev/pts/1
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: GRE: Discarding duplicate packet
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 15)
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Ignored a SET LINK INFO packet with real ACCMs!
cssl-server pppd[26931]: No CHAP secret found for authenticating admin
cssl-server pppd[26931]: CHAP peer authentication failed for admin
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 15)
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Got a SET LINK INFO packet with standard ACCMs
cssl-server pppd[26931]: Connection terminated.
cssl-server pppd[26931]: Exit.
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: GRE: read(fd=5,buffer=804d940,len=8196) from PTY failed: status = -1 error = Input/output error
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: PTY read or GRE write failed (pty,gre)=(5,6)
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Client 80.177.XXX.XXX control connection finished
cssl-server pptpd[26930]: CTRL: Exiting now
cssl-server pptpd[22384]: MGR: Reaped child 26930
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: MGR: Launching /usr/sbin/pptpctrl to handle client
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: local address = 192.168.30.2
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: remote address = 192.168.30.245
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: pppd speed = 460800
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: pppd options file = /etc/ppp/options.pptpd
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Client 80.177.XXX.XXX control connection started
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 1)
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Made a START CTRL CONN RPLY packet
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: I wrote 156 bytes to the client.
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Sent packet to client
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 7)
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Set parameters to 1525 maxbps, 64 window size
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Made a OUT CALL RPLY packet
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Starting call (launching pppd, opening GRE)
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: pty_fd = 5
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: tty_fd = 6
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: I wrote 32 bytes to the client.
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Sent packet to client
cssl-server pptpd[26935]: CTRL (PPPD Launcher): Connection speed = 460800
cssl-server pptpd[26935]: CTRL (PPPD Launcher): local address = 192.168.30.2
cssl-server pptpd[26935]: CTRL (PPPD Launcher): remote address = 192.168.30.245
cssl-server pppd[26935]: pppd 2.4.2b1 started by root, uid 0
cssl-server pppd[26935]: Starting negotiation on /dev/pts/1
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 15)
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Got a SET LINK INFO packet with standard ACCMs
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: GRE: Discarding duplicate packet
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 15)
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Ignored a SET LINK INFO packet with real ACCMs!
cssl-server kernel: divert: not allocating divert_blk for non-ethernet device ppp0
cssl-server pppd[26935]: Using interface ppp0
cssl-server pppd[26935]: CHAP peer authentication succeeded for dumolod
cssl-server pppd[26935]: MPPE 128-bit stateless compression enabled
cssl-server /etc/hotplug/net.agent: assuming ppp0 is already up
cssl-server pppd[26935]: found interface eth0 for proxy arp
cssl-server pppd[26935]: local IP address 192.168.30.2
cssl-server pppd[26935]: remote IP address 192.168.30.245
cssl-server e-smith[26949]: Processing event: ip-up.pptpd ppp0 /dev/pts/1 460800 192.168.30.2 192.168.30.245 pptpd
cssl-server e-smith[26949]: Running event handler: /etc/e-smith/events/ip-up.pptpd/S70pptp-interface-access
cssl-server /etc/e-smith/events/ip-up.pptpd/S70pptp-interface-access[26950]: /home/e-smith/configuration: OLD pptpd=service|Interfaces||StartIP|3232243445|sessions|6|status|enabled
cssl-server /etc/e-smith/events/ip-up.pptpd/S70pptp-interface-access[26950]: /home/e-smith/configuration: NEW pptpd=service|Interfaces|ppp0|StartIP|3232243445|sessions|6|status|enabled
cssl-server e-smith[26949]: S70pptp-interface-access=action|Event|ip-up.pptpd|Action|S70pptp-interface-access|Start|1106656298 962197|End|1106656299 441596|Elapsed|0.479399
cssl-server e-smith[26949]: Running event handler: /etc/e-smith/events/ip-up.pptpd/S80conf-masq
cssl-server e-smith[26949]: WARNING in /etc/e-smith/templates//etc/rc.d/init.d/masq/00Definitions: Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at /etc/e-smith/templates//etc/rc.d/init.d/masq/00Definitions line 5.
cssl-server e-smith[26949]: WARNING: Template processing succeeded for //etc/rc.d/init.d/masq: 1 fragment generated warnings
cssl-server e-smith[26949]: at /etc/e-smith/events/ip-up.pptpd/S80conf-masq line 46
cssl-server e-smith[26949]: S80conf-masq=action|Event|ip-up.pptpd|Action|S80conf-masq|Start|1106656299 441816|End|1106656300 349574|Elapsed|0.907758
cssl-server e-smith[26949]: Running event handler: /etc/e-smith/events/ip-up.pptpd/S85adjust-masq
cssl-server e-smith[26949]: S85adjust-masq=action|Event|ip-up.pptpd|Action|S85adjust-masq|Start|1106656300 349771|End|1106656300 592954|Elapsed|0.243183
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 5)
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Made a ECHO RPLY packet
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: I wrote 20 bytes to the client.
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Sent packet to client
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 5)
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Made a ECHO RPLY packet
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: I wrote 20 bytes to the client.
cssl-server pptpd[26934]: CTRL: Sent packet to client
[root@cssl-server log]#