If you want to make a connection to an other network, for example your work, then you need a VPN (Virtual Private Network) in most cases. VPN uses the internet to connect two geographical different locations with each other. That means there is a VPN server needed and a VPN client. In this article we will only describe the client side. Information between both VPN connected networks can be encrypted (best choice). Cisco uses the IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) protocol to do this kind of encryption. Well let's take a look into the configuration.

markdark@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome
[sudo] password for markdark:

Now that we are sure that you have "network-manager" installed we need to install VPNC as follows:

markdark@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install network-manager-vpnc
[sudo] password for markdark:

The VPNC packages is now installed. In your desktop environment you can now click on your internet connection and open the VPN configuration. You will see the next screen:

If you have an PCF file from a Windows machine you can select "Import" and then import your file. If you would like to add a profile manually you need to click on "Add". I will not go through all settings, because I think they speak for themselves.

After you added a VPN profile you can save and close all screens. To connect to your VPN, you can click on your internet connection again and go to VPN connections and then click the connection you want to start.

If you connection fails with a message like ""... no authorized VPN secrets...", please reboot your machine and you will see after this the connection will work!

Alternatively connecting to a Cisco VPN from the command line you can follow the next steps. First of all make a copy of the example.conf as follows:

markdark@ubuntu:~$ sudo cp /etc/vpnc/example.conf /etc/vpnc/myvpn.conf
[sudo] password for markdark:

Then edit this file with your preferred editor. Make it look like this:

IPSec gateway <host>
IPSec ID <group username>
IPSec secret <group password>
#IKE Authmode hybrid
Xauth username <username>
Xauth password <password>

Save the file and close it. Once back in your terminal you can connect en disconnect to the VPN as follows:

markdark@ubuntu:~$ sudo vpnc-connect myvpn
VPNC started in background (pid: 2114)...
markdark@ubuntu:~$ sudo vpnc-disconnect 
Terminating vpnc daemon (pid: 2114)