I'm running Mac OS X Server 10.6, providing an L2TP VPN service. The VPN works just fine when connecting from all computers except one --- this one computer stays at the "Connecting..." stage for a while, then says "The L2TP-VPN server did not respond".
In the console, I see this:
6/7/10 10:48:07 AM pppd[341] pppd 2.4.2 (Apple version 412.0.10) started by jdoe, uid 503
6/7/10 10:48:07 AM pppd[341] L2TP connecting to server 'foo.bar.baz.edu' (256.256.256.256)...
6/7/10 10:48:07 AM pppd[341] IPSec connection started
6/7/10 10:48:07 AM racoon[342] Connecting.
6/7/10 10:48:07 AM racoon[342] IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Main-Mode message 1).
6/7/10 10:48:08 AM racoon[342] IKE Packet: receive success. (Initiator, Main-Mode message 2).
6/7/10 10:48:08 AM racoon[342] IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Main-Mode message 3).
6/7/10 10:48:08 AM racoon[342] IKE Packet: receive success. (Initiator, Main-Mode message 4).
6/7/10 10:48:08 AM racoon[342] IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Main-Mode message 5).
6/7/10 10:48:11 AM racoon[342] IKE Packet: transmit success. (Phase1 Retransmit).
6/7/10 10:48:14 AM racoon[342] IKE Packet: transmit success. (Phase1 Retransmit).
6/7/10 10:48:17 AM racoon[342] IKE Packet: transmit success. (Phase1 Retransmit).
...and the "retransmit" messages continue until the error message pops up.
So far I've unsuccessfully tried:
rebooting
deleting the VPN profile and recreating it
verifying the client's internet connection (it is able to reach the VPN server)
connecting through several different networks (in case a router was blocking VPN packets)
disabling the Mac OS X Firewall on the client
making sure that the VPN settings exactly match those of other working computers
running software update (the client is on 10.6.3)
Any ideas?