There are many reasons why you need to connect to a VPN. Maybe you need to connect to your office network so you can access some confidential files from your Home PC, or that you need an American IP to watch Hulu and listen to Pandora. Whatever the reason is, you can easily configure a VPN connection in Ubuntu and no extra installation is required.
Note: This article assumes that the VPN you are connecting to is using a PPTP protocol. If you need a L2TP connection, the instruction below won’t work.
1. In your Ubuntu desktop, go to “System Settings -> Network”
2. At the Network window, click the “+” button at the left bottom corner.
3. When prompted, select VPN for the interface dropdown. Click “Create”.
4. Select “PPTP” for the VPN connection type (in most cases, you should only have one option). Click “Create”.
5. Give this VPN connection a name and enter the connection detail.
For some VPN connection, you might need to select the appropriate authentication method. In this case, click the “Advanced” button and check/uncheck the authentication method required for your VPN. Most of the time, you will have to disable the MSCHAP authentication and enable the “Use Point-to-Point encryption (MPPE)” optioni and select 128-bit security, but this could vary with each VPN connection.
Finally, click Ok and then Save to close out the previous window.
6. Lastly, click Save. You should be able to connect to this VPN by clicking the wireless icon at the system tray.
Done.
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Damien Oh
Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.
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