StrongSwan: we have no ipsecN interface for either end of this connection

I installed a new NIC card on one of my PCs where IPSec was already set up through StrongSwan and configured NAT-ing through iptables. Afterward, when I tried to do "ipsec up myconnection" I got this error:

we have no ipsecN interface for either end of this connection

The reason, it turns out, is that if the ipsec services were started before all the network interfaces came up, it is confused about which egress route to take. As I found on the Layer9 blog (and translated from German to English via Babelfish), it turns out you need to make sure that ipsec starts after the network has come up. The quick fix was just an IPSec restart:

sudo /etc/init.d/ipsec restart

And the long-term fix was definitely to just delay the ipsec a little. Add this to your /etc/rc.local file:

/etc/init.d/ipsec stopsleep 5/etc/init.d/ipsec start

Magic Jack error 9 no internet connection

I was struggling to be the tech-support for my mother back home and getting her to talk to me over magic jack. It kept saying, Error 9: no internet connection.

And yet at the same time she could hear me properly on Skype but I was not able to hear her at all. Video was working both ways.

I asked her to unplug the magic jack ("Safely remove hardware" and all), and viola, the skype audio started working! :)

I haven't ascertained yet, but I am pretty sure the solution to the magic jack also lies somewhere there - some other device must be using the network itself.