Cisco VPN

Sjoden · 2008-12-17 00:12:06

I have a working Cisco VPN profile that connects to a Cisco PIX. I know it works because I've set it up on other Windows machines. Is there anyone here who has successfully connected to a Cisco VPN in Arch?

Last edited by Sjoden (2008-12-17 00:14:05)

rson451 · 2008-12-17 00:18:26

I have. Unfortuantely It's been over a year so the details are fuzzy, but it was fairly straight forward. You'll just need the .pcf for the profile you use in windows and root access to the machine you want to use VPN on.

Sjoden · 2008-12-17 00:40:26

Well, at least someone has done it successfully. I have the profile, and I set myself up for allowed 'dial in' access in Active Directory, since I'm a domain admin at work. I just need to find a decent program to connect with. I'd prefer a GUI, but it doesn't by any means need to be one. It looks like its come down to OpenVPN with OpenVPN-Admin or KVPNc. I would go for OpenVPN-Admin, but it uses Mono for the GUI, and I've been avoiding that. I don't particularly like to install and uninstall different programs just for the heck if it either. Does anyone have any experience with either of them?

Thanks,
Zack

rson451 · 2008-12-17 00:54:42

Why not use the native linux cisco vpn client? (In the AUR)

Last edited by rson451 (2008-12-17 00:58:28)

Sjoden · 2008-12-17 01:40:02

Cool, I wasn't aware that was there. But.. looking at the licensing, I don't believe we can distribute that. Not that Arch is, but I don't have a license to use it. I think I'll try KVPNc.

Thanks,
Zack

PeteMo · 2008-12-17 01:56:39

I have used vpnc to connect to a cisco vpn. It has been a long time since I set it up but I don't think it was too difficult.

tom5760 · 2008-12-17 05:33:02

+1 for vpnc. I currently use it to connect to the Cisco VPN at work. It is pretty straightforward to set up. Also, if you really want a GUI, networkmanager-vpn in the AUR is pretty good.

Sjoden · 2008-12-17 06:18:25

Agh. Using KVPNC with vpnc, it loads my profiles, resolves the vpn gateway to an IP, but then crashes.

[zack@broken ~]$ kvpnc
QComboBox::setCurrentItem: (SessionCombo) Index 1 out of range
KCrash: Application 'kvpnc' crashing...
KCrash cannot reach kdeinit, launching directly.

Super Jamie · 2008-12-19 02:07:31

vpnc should be fine. you can specify everything in config files, like a PCF, so your user can just run a script or click an icon to start vpn. vpnc also gives you alot more control (than the windows client) over tunnel routing

if you want a gui, the latest nm-applet has integration with open source openvpn, cisco and pptp vpn clients. try an ubuntu intrepid livecd (and check synaptic for packages starting "network-manager", if they aren't installed by default) to see it in action. you may have to "killall nm-applet && sleep 2 && nm-applet" after installing the additional vpn plugins

the only problem i've had with vpnc is that it provides almost no console output for troubleshooting if it doesn't work (admittedly i've never checked /var/log/), but you should be able to see what's going on with debugs on your pix anyway

Arch Linux

#1 2008-12-17 00:12:06

Cisco VPN

#2 2008-12-17 00:18:26

Re: Cisco VPN

#3 2008-12-17 00:40:26

Re: Cisco VPN

#4 2008-12-17 00:54:42

Re: Cisco VPN

#5 2008-12-17 01:40:02

Re: Cisco VPN

#6 2008-12-17 01:56:39

Re: Cisco VPN

#7 2008-12-17 05:33:02

Re: Cisco VPN

#8 2008-12-17 06:18:25

Re: Cisco VPN

#9 2008-12-19 02:07:31

Re: Cisco VPN

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