Setting Up Snow Leopard VPN from PCF FileSetting Up Snow Leopard VPN from PCF File

Having recently upgraded to Snow Leopard one of the things that stopped working was my Cisco VPN client for access to my work network.  From reading around it seems a reinstall should solve this but rather than go down that route I decided to look to the built in VPN features instead.

The starting point for this is the Networks section of the System Preferences.  Click the + to add a new interface and select the VPN option and then the Cisco selection.  You should end up with something that looks like this;

From here you get to another dialog box where the various connection details are to be added;

This is where the problem for many people is going to come and would seem to be a fairly huge omission on Apple’s behalf.  To simplify the setup of the VPN to non-techy users,and to avoid giving out the password for the VPN group,many if not most VPN admins will create a .pcf file that can then be used with the VPN client of choice to import all of the settings.  I was expecting a button on the above dialog with “Import PCF”or similar functionality but no.

Now .pcf files are mostly clear text so opening in a text editor will give most of the key details,Server Address for example and if you don’t already know your username and password you aren’t going to be logging on anyway!  However,the next step is where the problem happens.  To set up you need to click on the Authentication Settings button and you are taken to the following;

The Group Name will be clear text in the .pcf (if used) but the Machine Authentication isn’t and you will need the actual password to complete the installation.  Now given that one of the reasons for the .pcf is to avoid giving this password out this isn’t something most users will have to hand and many IT departments will be loathe to give out.  A quick Google search though shows that help is at hand.  A quick trip to this website will allow you to copy in the encrypted password from the pcf file and get the actual password in return.  As the site only takes the server password,i.e. not the server address or group name,there isn’t really a security issue here.

With password in hand the setup is complete and the VPN should now work fine.  Did for me anyway.

Enjoy.

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