Creating PPTP VPN connections in Ubuntu is really pretty simple. Just a few quick steps and you have some extra protection when surfing the web from open wireless networks and an easy way to get to your home computers. I’ve also found that applications in Linux behave much better when connecting and disconnecting from a VPN than most Windows applications do. This all assumes of course that you have a PPTP capable router to connect to. I personally use ClarkConnect Home on my firewall box. I’ve used this method in 7.04 and 7.10, I’ll post an update as soon as I give it a shot in 8.04.
Step 1: Install the Network manager PPTP plugin.
From Add/Remove Programs… you can just install the “VPN Connection Manager (PPP Generic)” package. Or you can use the following at the command line:
sudo apt-get install network-manager-pptp pptp-linux
Step 2: Setup a VPN connection.
Right click on the Network Manager icon in the system tray (The two little computers that show that you are connected to a network). It must be a right click, left clicking shows a different menu. Select “VPN Connections” then “Configure VPN…” then choose “+Add” on the window that appears. This opens the connection wizard.
On Step 1 of the wizard you should choose “Connect To: PPTP Tunnel”.
On Step 2 of the wizard you will usually only need to change settings on the “Connection” tab. You will need to name your connection, set the type to “Windows VPN PPTP”, and enter the host name or IP address of the gateway server you are connecting to. After you’ve finished the wizard you can close the “VPN Connections” window.
Step 3: Connect for the first time.
Right click on the Network Manager icon again and select “VPN Connections”. Now you should see an entry for the connection you just created. Click on that antry and you will be prompted for your username and password. If everything works correctly you should see a small lock icon over the Network Manager icon now.
Congratulations you’re done. By now I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out how to disconnect from the VPN.
Hi
I did your instruction, but in the first step I can’t install pptp plugin. My kubuntu show me this message: "Could not get locked /va/lib/dpkg/lock -open (11 Resource temporarily unavailable).
I’ve never tried this in Kubuntu. It sounds to me like another package manager might have been running. I would try to restart the computer then install it through Add / Remove Programs. Hopefully that will give a more meaningful error message if it fails.