Jon’s Linux Experiment – Part 4 – The PPTP VPN Snafu

Well, here is a new problem that I’ve solved, with a little help from a few websites!

Like many people who work on the internet, I need to connect to a VPN from time to time to work. My VPN, a PPTP Windows 2003 Server VPN, is a nice little setup that I use to remote into a variety of webservers. However VPN setups in Ubuntu have always been a bit strange to work with. Here’s what I had to do to get my PPTP VPN connection established:

I largely followed the guide here, first by running sudo apt-get install network-manager-pptp and then by setting up a VPN by using network manager in Ubuntu. I ran into a few problems, mostly because I used a domain name in the credentials box when i did not have to. Clearing that and enabling MPPE encryption (See the guide posted above) resolved a lot of the errors I had and let me successfully connect. Other problems I ran across but were not part of my issue were of firewall irregularities or of a “unique setup” nature. The best advice I can offer to anyone is to just keep searching. Eventually you’ll get your PPTP setup going, and it shall be sweet!