Conference noted::seal

1902.0. ""AUTHENTICATION SERVER UNREACHABLE" error on firewall" by MLNCSC::ZAGHI () Tue Apr 01 1997 10:33

Hi ,

A customer of mine is facing with a odd behaviour in his firewall configuration:


ENVIRONMENT:
-----------

 --------------              ------------               ---------------
|              |            |            |             |               |
| PCs Side     |  --------- |   Firewall | ----------- |  Servers      |
|              |            |   System   |             |   Unix        |
 --------------             |            |             | (RED SIDE)    |
                             ------------               ---------------


PCs Side = Some PCs that have to connect via TELNET or FTP to the Servers Unix
           systems.

Firewall System  = ALPHA 3000-300 with "Digital Firewall for Unix" V2.0 
                   installed ( The operativ system is Digital Unix V3.2C)

Servers Unix = Some Unix systems



PROBLEM:
-------

There are not authentication enabled on Firewall .
PCs use TELNET and FTP to connect to the Firewall node and from this node 
they reach Unix systems (once on the firewall node they use the command
"connect server_name" in the case of the telnet command) . 
When a user from a PC make a connetction to the firewall node receives
a welcome message (customized by an existing html page ).

Random , the following behaviour happens :

when a user from a PC make a connection to the firewall doesn't receive the
welcome message and get the following message :
AUTHENTICATION SERVER UNREACHABLE 

After that he can still connect to a Unix server ( both with telnet & ftp ).

The normal behaviour comes back if the customer reboot the firewall system.

The customer is asking to me what could be the cause of the message 
AUTHENTICATION SERVER UNREACHABLE ( it is important to consider that when this 
message appears ftp and telnet services work ok)

Could anyone give me any tips ?

Many thanks in advance, 

Paolo 
(CSC, Milan)


    

Note 674 contains suggestions on how to solve this problem.
If you could post the ftp  sites you are trying to access, I could check
if we get the same error.

Sarah
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]

Hi Sarah,

>Note 674 contains suggestions on how to solve this problem.
I have to give up because I don't know so well firewall ( I'll have to route
the call to the expertise center).

>If you could post the ftp  sites you are trying to access, I could check
>if we get the same error. 

Firewall configuration is not reachable from internet outside of the customer
site.

Many thanks for your cooperation,

Paolo 
(CSC , Milan)