Connecting to VPN

[drewel]

I need to find a way to connect to my company's VPN. Problem is, IT does not support Mac OS. I went to a VPN training course at work, and found out that I have to download a .exe file (this is the VPN software, and obviously, meant for Windows users) on my home computer. I do have an Intel Mac, but I do not own a copy of Windows to install via Bootcamp. Is there a way to connect to my company's VPN without downloading their VPN software?

 

[operator207]

Get the settings you need for your companies VPN, open your network settings, and add VPN. Apple -> System Prefs -> Network.
Click + sign at bottom, and add VPN.

Add the settings from work, and you should be ok. You may have to hunt around for the settings in OSX, but you should be fine. Your admin may not be able to tell you the settings (Its ashame the quality of some Admin's now a days.), If they have a config file they give you for the VPN exe for windows, you should be able to open it up in text edit, and read what you need.

 

[wlh99]

It depends on what type of VPN your company is using. If it is standard PPTP or IPSEC then you don't need any software, just add it under system prefs. If your company uses something other than PPTP, like one of Cisco's or Sonicwall's VPN clients, then you will need an OS/X version of that client. They are available and pretty easy to find and download from the internet, but you need to find out what you need from your admin.

 

[trainguy77]

Well since the are asking the windows users to download an application i assume its not PPTP because thats in the windows OS. So i am assuming its ipsec, which isn't built into OS X or windows. IPSecuritas is what i use as a VPN client. It should work for you, if they are using IPsec that is. Do you have the settings that they give you? That will be required to set up these apps.

 

[drewel]

Thanks for your help- but after lots of talking to IT, it seems I need to install Windows just to run some of the programs. I did get a taste of how hard it is to work with IT in an all-windows environment..... they just don't want to deal with it. Argggh.