Setting up your VPN under Windows Vista

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Setting up your VPN under Windows Vista

Setting up PublicVPN access under Windows Vista is simple. The following instructions go step–by–step through the creation process. These instructions work under all the client–side variations of Windows Vista, namely Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate.
The things to click and places to type your information are hilighted in red, yellow, green, and/or blue.

System Requirements

Before setting up your VPN connection, make sure your version of Windows Vista is up to date by running Windows Update.

Make sure your system is up–to–date

Be sure that you run Windows Update before setting up your VPN connection.

Open the Control Panels

First, click on the Start button and click “Control Panels”. This opens up the “Control Panel Home.”

Go to the “Network and Internet” panel

Next, click on the “Network and Internet” control panel, which is circled in red below.

Connect To A Network

Next, click on “Connect to a network.”

Set up the VPN connection

The next screen may not look quite like this if you have networks already defined. In any case, click on “Set up a connection or Network.”

Choose the Connection Type

On the next screen, click on “Connect to a workplace” then click “Next.”

Select the Internet connection

Next click “Use my Internet connection (VPN).”

Enter the server information

Now, enter the server information.

In the text box labelled ‘Internet address’ ( hilighted in blue) type ‘gateway.publicvpn.net’. This is the Internet address of the PublicVPN.com servers.
In the text box labelled ‘Destination name’ (hilighted in green) type ‘PublicVPN.com’. This is the name of the connection, and will show up in the “Connect to a network” screen when we’re done.
Lastly, make sure that the checkbox labelled “Don't connect now; just set it up so I can connect later” (hilighted in yellow) is checked.
Then click the “Next” button.

Enter your PublicVPN.com username and password

In this screen, enter your PublicVPN.com username and password. This is the same username and password that you use to log in to the PublicVPN.com website.
In the text box labelled “User name:” (hilighted in blue), enter your PublicVPN.com username.
In the text box labelled “Password:” (hilighted in yellow), enter your PublicVPN.com password.
Optionally, check the “Remember this password” checkbox (hilighted in green) and you won’t have to enter your password when you connect to PublicVPN.com.
Then, click the ”Create” button.

Connection Ready

You should see this screen next. Click the “Close” button to return to the “Network and Internet” screen.

Go to the connection

Now click on “Connect to a network” again.

Select the connection properties

In the “Connect to a network” screen, you should see the PublicVPN.com connection that we set just up. Right–click on the PublicVPN.com connection document (circled in red), and choose “Properties” (circled in green) from the menu.

Select Options

In the property window, click the “Options” tab.

Deselect domain logon

In the “Options” tab, make sure the checkbox labelled “Include Windows logon domain” (hilighted in green) is unchecked.
Then click the “PPP Settings…” button (hilighted in red).

PPP options

In the “PPP Settings” dialog box, make sure the settings look like the ones in the picture below, then click the “OK” button (hilighted in red).

Go to the Security tab

Next, click the “Security” tab, which is hilighted in red.

Security tab settings

Make sure the security tab has the same settings as here. Then click the “Networking” tab, hilighted in red below.

Neworking settings

This screen shows you the network settings. You may have different items in your list. In the list of items that you see, make sure that only the “Internet Protocol Version 4(TCP/IPv4)” and “Client for Microsoft Networks” items are checked. If oher protcols are checked, uncheck them by clicking on the checkbox (the thing that looks like a ‘√’).
PublicVPN.com currently does not route anything except TCP/IP version 4.

Set TCP/IP v4 Properties

Now, click on the “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” item in the list (hilighted in green) and click the “Properties” button (hilighted in red).

Set VPN DNS

Next, set the VPN connection’s DNS server to the PublicVPN.com DNS server. Click the “Use the following DNS server addresses” radio buton in the property window (hilighted in green) and type the PublicVPN.com DNS server address in the “Preferred DNS server” text area. The PublicVPN.com DNS server is: 172.31.0.1. Then click the “OK” button.

Done with basic setup!

You’re now done with your basic setup! You've set up your PublicVPN.com connection to use PPTP. Click “OK” to finish now, if you want.
However, for better security we recommend that you configure your VPN connection to use an L2TP/IPsec connection, which is more secure. To do this, keep reading.

Setting up L2TP/IPsec

In the “PublicVPN.com Properties”, click on the “Type of VPN” pop–up menu (hilighted in red) and select “L2TP/IPsec”.

Go to IPsec Settings…

Next, click on the “IPsec Settings…” button (hilighted in red).

Set the Preshared Key

In the “IPsec Settings” dialog, click the radio button labelled “Use preshared key for authentication” (hilighted in green). Then type ‘publicvpn.net’ into the textbox labelled “Key” (hilighted in blue). Then click the “OK” button (hilighted in red).

Finished!

You’re finished! Click the ”OK” button to save your settings.

Set the connection location

The first time you connect to PublicVPN.com, you might see a screen like this one. Windows is asking you if you want to automatically connect to PublicVPN.com whenever you’re at a given location. If you want to connect to PublicVPN.com automatically when you’re at a public hotspot, click “Public location.”
However, you probably should click ”Cancel”, because most public locations require you to click through an agreement before you can access the Internet — meaning that any connection you attempt will fail. Instead, you should just connect manually.

Connecting to PublicVPN.com

To connect to PublicVPN.com, go to the Start buton and click “Connect To”.
Then click on the PublicVPN.com entry and click “Connect”.