Kaspersky, Sonicwall SSL VPN, and Windows Vista. 'Nuff said.

Well, this is my crapola experience that I hope no one else goes through. So I'm writing this post just in case you are in the same situation and are (still) scratching your head trying to figure this out.

Problem: SSL VPN via an Active X client can't connect
Client OS: Vista Business
SSL VPN: SonicWall
Client Security: Kaspersky Internet Security ver. 7

1. It's not one of those Vista issues
2. It's not the Active X client of SonicWall either
3. I wouldn't blame Kaspersky, although I believe they should put a note about this on their support site (support.kaspersky.com).
• The culprit: you have to explicitly exclude Port 443 from traffic monitoring
• Click Port Settings....scroll and uncheck
  
• Even if you checked "Do not check encrypted connections" in the Encrypted Connections section of the Traffic Monitoring Group, it's not enough..one would think that it would, wouldn't it? Maybe it's just me...

Anyway, I hope the above proves helpful. I'm asking for a better solution from Kaspersky since it's really a good idea to filter that port, so a more granular setting is what I'm looking for - re: "Filter Port 443, except for this particular site/connection". I'll post it if one exists.

Here's a parallel crapola situation while I was already going through the above headache: Windows Vista's infamous "Destination Folder Access Denied" pop up message.

Maybe you already know about this (I didn't) - "administrator" is an entirely new beast in Vista. You think you are, but you really not - for certain activities. I think it's a really smart move on Microsoft's part, but it can get quite irritating in the beginning.

I won't bore you with details of UAC - I now understand it better (you should too), but one of the quirks of this great feature is your inability, as a perceived administrator, to even rename files in certain "protected directories" of your system. One of those directories happens to be Program Files.

So, if your software vendor has some fix that requires you to rename, delete, move, or add files to these protected directories, you'll discover that you can't. There's a lot of frustration out there on the web about this, and some really wacky suggestions and fixes...even a "tool" that supposedly circumvents this. Well, I'm not one to judge, but I personally think that's folly...specially if there's a simple solution:

1. Click Start
2. Type CMD in the box
3. You'll see the Command Prompt Icon appear
4. Right-click it and select Run As Administrator, (yeah as the "real" administrator)
   
5. Headache solved

Hopefully, there shouldn't be a reason for you to do so, but in cases that you need to, I hope the above saves you from further aggravation.