Remote Access Clients

To create a Remote Access Connection, open Network Connections and Select create a new connection.

Use the buttons below to navigate through the lesson

The New Connection Wizard will appear. Click Next to continue. From the choices given chose the type of connection required, in this case select Connect to the network at my workplace. Select the type of connection, e.g. Virtual Private Network Connection. Click Next to continue. Choose a name for the connection. Click Next to continue. Type the name or IP address of the VPN server into the dialog box. Click Next to continue. Click on Finish to close the Wizard.

The connection box appears. Click on Properties to configure the connection. From the General page the IP address of the server is shown.  If another connection is needed for this VPN (e.g. an ISP connection) then it can be specified in the Dial another connection first. Dialling and Redialling options can be configured from the Options page, e.g. The number of Redial attempts. Security Options can be configured from the Security page. Select Advanced (custom settings) to configure Authentication Protocols. Click the Settings button. To enable or disable encryption select an option from the Data Encryption box.

A good option is to leave Require Encryption on, leaving encryption disabled imposes a big security risk. Different authentication protocols can be enabled and disabled by selecting/deselecting the checkboxes below. It is always a good idea to disable PAP/SPAP unless they are needed by legacy clients.

The IP address can be configured from the Networking page as well as the tunnelling protocol being used. Scroll down the list  to view the available choices. Automatic should automatically detect the type of protocol to use. If it doesn’t,select the tunnelling protocol required from the list.

From the Advanced page, the connection can be shared for use by other machines on the network. This machine will then become a router. Once everything has been configured, click on Connect to connect to the VPN server and join the remote network.