Need a VPN client

[MrKnisely]

Tim Frost wrote:

>On Fri, 2005-11-18 at 07:54 -0500, Timothy A. Holmes wrote: 
>  
>
>>Good Morning Everyone:
>>
>>Ubuntu is running along sweet on my laptop, and its time for a little
>>bit more improvement.  This time, I need a good vpn client (preferably
>>with a gui for setup etc)
>>
>>Our vpn here at work is run off a Cisco pix 501 firewall, and is
>>compatible with the windows VPN client.  
>>
>>I don't know a lot more about it yet (Im very new to VPN) but my
>>contractor and I got it set up yesterday, windoze can connect to it, so
>>Ubuntu needs to be able to as well.
>>    
>>
>
>There is a package that may be suitable.  It is found in universe:
>vpnc - Cisco-compatible VPN client
>
>And Cisco have a version of their client for Linux.  The installation of
>this client requires that a kernel module needs to be compiled.  This is
>OK if you are familiar with building kernel modules for Ubuntu, but is
>not for a novice.
>
>Hope this helps
>  
>
>>Thanks
>>
>>Timothy A. Holmes
>>IT Manager / Network Admin / Web Master / Computer Teacher
>> 
>>Medina Christian Academy
>>A Higher Standard...
>> 
>>Jeremiah 33:3
>>Jeremiah 29:11
>>Esther 4:14
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>
>Tim
>
>
>  
>
I run VPNC and it works pretty well.  I use it with Pix-501 as endpoints 
without issue.  The configuration  is not done through a gui though.

Configuration is a simple file as follows:

IPSec ID GROUPNAME
IPSec gateway XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
IPSec secret PRE-SHARE-KEY
Xauth password PASSWORD
Xauth username USERNAME
Domain DOMAIN

 I don't use Xauth so username, password, and domain are blank for me.  
Replace Groupname with the vpngroup in your pix config.  Replace the 
gateway with the public IP of the pix.  Replace the Pre-Share-Key with 
the group password in your pix config.

To get it going the command is easy:

user at hostname:/#vpnc vpn.conf

Once you're done, a simple vpnc-disconnect drops the tunnel.

I've been using it for a little while now, and it works well for me.

Mike K.