Cisco VPN

Some people find it tricky (especially Windows users) when it comes to installing the Cisco VPN Client in Linux.

Once you have downloaded the compressed file (either officially from Cisco or by other means) create a folder in a location that you won't be deleting any time soon. (I usually create a sub-folder called "vpnclient" under a folder called "Support" on the root of the drive.)

Extract the files into this folder. Then bring up a terminal (a command prompt) and browse to the folder location where you extracted the files.

Run the command:

sudo ./vpn_install

*Except the Defaults

After it is installed you can either reboot or run the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/vpnclient_init start

This command will start the VPN subsytem.

Once this is done you can connect from the vpn by typing the command:

vpnclient connect [pcf file name]

And to disconnect you can bring up another terminal and type the command:

vpnclient disconnect

The pcf files from your Windows Cisco VPN client will work just fine in your Linux Cisco VPN. The pcf Profile files are located in etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Profiles/ so you can copy your .pcf files to this location.