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MS-Windows Troubleshooting
error 781: The encryption attempt failed because no valid certificate was found
Symptom:
When trying to establish a VPN connection to a computer the following error is encountered:
Connecting to ...
Error 781: The encryption attempt failed because no valid certificate was found.
Possible Causes and Remedies:
- This error can indicate simply that it was not possible to reach
the VPN server across the network.
- Check that the name or IP-address of the VPN server has been correctly specified.
- Try pinging the VPN server, if this fails then consult the notes on general network connectivity problems.
- This error normally indicates that there is a problem with either the computer certificate at the VPN server or that there is a problem with the VPN servers IPSec Policy Agent service.
- This error can also occur due to an intermittent problem (possibly a windows bug, but at either the client or server end - I don't know). If everything else looks okay then try it again and it will sometimes succeed.
These notes have been tested with Windows 2000.
About the author: Brian Cryer is a dedicated software developer and webmaster. For his day job he develops websites and desktop applications as well as providing IT services. He moonlights as a technical author and consultant.