[stimmer6253472]

ALL:
I am having a problem with my company VPN disconnecting me when I use my cell phone as a modem tethered to my laptop. I am hoping someone here can lend some insight as to what is happening since I think Sprint might be getting ready to tell me to hit the road. Here goes the scenario.

I purchased this phone in February to specifically use to connect to my work VPN as I do not have DSL or cable modem access at my house. I previously used Nextel BB with a Verizon EVDO card. I figured it would be cheaper\easy to go to a Sprint 8703e instead of both. This worked flawlessly for 6-7 months or so. However, recently I have been getting disconnected from the VPN after 2-3 minutes of being connected. It DOES NOT disconnect my internet connection just my VPN. I can immediately sign back in and all is well. This problem seemed to start around the time I had a problem accessing the internet from my phone. I called Sprint and they "re provisioned" my phone and fixed the problem. However, I cannot guarantee that is when the problem started as I do not use VPN daily. Here is what I have done to try and troubleshoot the problem.

1) I have a co worker with the same phone (8703e) and Sprint service who continues to use his VPN on a daily basis. I have used his phone on my laptop with no problems. However, when I use my phone with his laptop I get dropped (and vice versa).
2) My work has both a Cisco VPN as well as a F5 SSL VPN. I have the same problem with both.
3) It is not location specific as I have had the same problem in several places throughout the country.
4) It is not a bandwidth or signal issue as the building I work out of is an old Sprint building in KC and we have a Sprint repeater in the building. So I always get a very good signal and various bandwidth meters constantly show a 1.5 - 2.0 download speed as well as acceptable uploads.
5) I have wiped my phone clean and installed the latest OS at the time (version 4.1.0.384.)
6) Sprint has removed my PAM service and re added.
7) Sprint has "supposedly" wiped all of my provisioning clean and re added.

From what I have came up with it HAS to be my phone or my service. My phone is fairly new 6-7 months and look perfect. I know that doesn't always mean anything. Of course I do not have insurance on my phone so I do not want to try another phone unless I KNOW it will fix the problem. Sprint just says since it does not drop the actual internet call it is not there problem. Which I think is BS. After a couple weeks they are now saying they do not support VPN. Which I understand and I also know this is not an easy problem to troubleshoot as there are lots of places to point fingers.

If anyone has any ideas whatsoever I would appreciate hearing them.
Thanks for the time,
Jim