> Source: [sk183813](https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk183813)

# sk183813 - Remote Access VPN Authentication Slowness with RADIUS and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| Solution ID | sk183813 |
| Date Created | 2025-08-20 |
| Last Modified | 2025-08-21 |
| Technical Level | Advanced |
| Products | Security Gateway |
| Versions | R81.20, R81.10 (EOS) |

## Symptoms

- * Users experience significant delays (1 to 3 minutes) when authenticating to Remote Access Virtual Private Network (VPN) using Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
* The VPN client may stall while ***connecting to the site*** or remains at 47% progress for an extended period before successfully connecting.
* Timeout errors may occur during authentication.
* Authentication using only username and password (without MFA) is significantly faster. Local user authentication shows no slowness.
* All users are affected, regardless of VPN client or location.
* Packet captures show delays in forwarding authentication packets to the RADIUS server.
* Debug logs in the Security Gateway show repeated timeouts and retries when fetching user information from Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or RADIUS.  
  Example debug log:  
  `[RADIUS] Timeout waiting for response, retrying...`  
  `[LDAP] User information fetch timed out, retrying...`

## Cause

Authentication slowness is due to:  

* Suboptimal RADIUS and Internet Key Exchange (IKE) timeouts and retransmission settings on the Check Point Security Gateway.
* Multiple authentication methods (LDAP, local users, RADIUS), causing sequential delays.
* RADIUS retransmission value set too high (10). This could result in extensive wait time for responses, and connection timeout.
* IKE negotiation timeout is too low for environments using MFA.
* VPN client timeouts not aligned with Security Gateway settings.

## Solution

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