Configuring Windows VPN Connection from Cisco AnyConnect

4

I don't know if it is possible but I would like to configure a Windows 7 VPN connection in a way that I can connect to a network which I normally reach by using Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client. Does Cisco use a protocol which Windows 7 understands also and where can I find the configuration details of the VPN connection?

If you wonder why I'm trying to do this: I need to connect via VPN to several different networks from different companies/organizations/universities and each one uses its own VPN client. I don't want my computer to have 5 VPN clients installed, therefore I'm trying to replace them with simple Windows VPN connections.

Oliver Hanappi

Posted 2009-11-01T12:01:14.583

Reputation: 153

Answers

2

That greatly depends on the configuration of the server. Cisco Concentrators can speak PPTP which works on nearly every version of Windows, but it's costly in terms of performance. The number of possible connections drops to about a tenth for the server so this is rarely activated.

Furthermore there seems to be an option to enable L2TP. The documentation states that but at least for our university here no one figured out how to enable it and set it up.

You would have to ask the person maintaining the server whether one of the above options apply.

For the "usual" Cisco IPSec over UDP there is no native option in Windows, unfortunately.

Joey

Posted 2009-11-01T12:01:14.583

Reputation: 36 381

Can I get this informations from the AnyConnect client or do I need to contact an administrator? – Oliver Hanappi – 2009-11-01T12:57:35.187

2The latter. The AnyConnect client only speaks its own protocol which is of no use when you want to try connecting with the Windows VPN. So you should ask whether PPTP or L2TP are enabled and how to set them up properly (PPTP is straightforward, but L2TP is a little awkward to set up). – Joey – 2009-11-01T21:51:50.310