First, I tried a trick I read in a forum:
- Open System Preferences → Network
- Click the “Location” drop down menu and choose “Edit Locations …”
- Create a brand new Location
- Configure your Wifi or Ethernet connection so you’re online
- On the lower left corner, click on the “+” button, then on “Interface” choose “VPN” and on “VPN Type”, choose “PPTP”.
- Configure your VPN using your company’s setting (IP address, “DOMAIN\username”, type your password clicking on the “Authentication Settings …” button.
- Again on the lower left corner, click on the 3rd icon, next to the “-” icon and choose “Set Service Order …”
- Drag and drop your VPN service to the top of the list
If you have VMWare Fusion installed, I read that the virtual network adapters could be one of the reasons so you need to stop them typing this in the Terminal:
After that, again in the Network Preferences Pane, I connected into my VPN and surprisingly the connection stayed on for more than 1 hr whereas I couldn’t stay connected for more than 5 min before that. None of the steps above make much
sense, but it seems to have worked for me.
I also left a Terminal open constantly pinging some server inside the company network to make sure I am keeping the connection alive. I have no idea if those steps actually solve the problem or I just got lucky all of a sudden. Please drop a line in the comments if it solved it for you or if you have other insights around this issue.
Bottom line: if you can, don’t build a Windows-based network.