The Mac Admin's Blog

Before I write this post, I am in conversation with Cisco personals about the legal implications of decrypting the CISCO Shared Secret or Group Passwords. Please bare with me for few days as I will complete this post as soon as I get green signal from Cisco! Thank you for your co-operation. Meanwhile you can drop me an Email if you need to discuss this topic with me: Laeeq.Humam@macmasters.net

Today we are going to discuss the details of .pcf files and the way to configure it in iPhone or Mac. Once the configuration part is complete I will talk a little bit about how to decipher the .pcf file. You might be aware of the new option added in System Preferences under Network which is CISCO VPN. Yes, it means you don’t have to install the application if you need to connect to VPN. Indeed, Mac OS X is the most advance OS in today’s world – Oh we would discuss its greatness later on, lets talk about making the VPN work for you: On Mac OS X: Launch System Preferences Go to Network Now click on the plus ‘+’ sign (which is meant to create a new service) On the iPhone: Go to Settings Now go to General Under Network, select VPN   Now select Add VPN Configuration Enter the details in these fields from your .pcf file. To get the value that needs to be entered, you need to open your .pcf file which could be save on your machine. To know where the .p...

Once the CISCO VPN client is installed on the machine the profiles are automatically saved. In case you want to find where the VPN profiles are saved on Macintosh, you can peek at the following destination: /etc/CiscoSystemsVPNClient/Profiles/ /private/etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Profiles/ VPN can be configured on iPhones and Macs but you will be able to access the office network using VPN tunnel only when you have been provided sufficient privileges on your corporate Active Directory account. In order to get VPN access you may contact your IT Helpdesk . How to configure Cisco VPN on iPhone or Mac Understanding the .pcf files How to decipher .pcf files

How to connect CISCO VPN in Snow Leopard 10.6 According to the latest review on Cnet about Cisco VPN compatibility with 10.6 the Snow Leopard version of Mac OS X is limited to TCP connections and does not support the UDP protocol. There is a built in client in Apple to connect to VPN and the limitation of TCP transportation will stop users from connecting to VPN using UDP setting. Unluckily, if your VPN server is set up to accept connections IP sec over UDP only, you will not be able to connect using Apple's client. In such a condition the use of Cisco's third-party VPN client is needed. The good news for such users is, the Cisco VPN client works well in Snow Leopard, so those who need this alternate connectivity can download the client from here: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps2308/index.html For more info about VPN client please read FAQs on CISCO VPN