Windows Software Client

The last chapter discussed the use of the Cisco VPN Client to establish remote access IPsec sessions to a Cisco VPN gateway (Easy VPN Server) product, such as a concentrator, IOS router, or PIX firewall. Because many companies have policies that center on Microsoft products, you might have to use a Microsoft client to establish connections to a Microsoft VPN gateway. Likewise, your users might have to establish VPN connections to a Cisco gateway and a Microsoft gateway, requiring you to use both client products. This chapter will focus on using Microsoft's VPN client to establish PPTP or L2TP/IPsec connections to a VPN gateway.

Note

Even though Microsoft's Windows VPN client is obviously not a Cisco product, and this book is about Cisco VPNs, as a consultant I'm constantly asked questions about how to set up PPTP or L2TP over IPsec (L2TP/IPsec) sessions from a Microsoft client to a Cisco VPN gateway. Therefore I've decided to include this chapter in the book to help those people who must deal with this type of connectivity issue. This chapter, however, will focus only on the use of the client with the Windows 2000, XP, and 2003 operating systems, even though Microsoft has a different client that will run on older operating systems.

To help you with using Microsoft's VPN client, the following sections cover these topics:

• Windows Client
• Configuring the Windows VPN Client
• Configuring the VPN 3000 Concentrator
• Microsoft Client Connections
• Troubleshooting VPN Connections