Setting up VPN connection: only pbk file (Windows) available

Question

I want to set up a connection with the network of my work via VPN in Ubuntu (11.04), but they only provide support for windows. They provide a pbk file, and in Windows you just have to double click it to make the connection. Can I use this in a certain way in Ubuntu?

I know that the pbk file is a text file I can open to extract maybe useful information, but I don't know what. For example, when I add a vpn connection, do I have to choose for vpnc or pptp?

I do also know that there is a similar question - https://askubuntu.com/questions/63778/running-a-pbk-file-in-linux?noredirect=1 - but that has migrated to another site, and there they don't give really a satisfying answer.

Answer 1

After some more trying and looking on the web, I managed to make the VPN connection by the following steps:

1. Add a VPN connection (click on network-indicator -> VPN connections -> Configure VPN ... -> Add). Here you choose "Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)" (not Cisco compatible VPN)

2. Give the necessary data:

   • Gateway: this is the VPN address (PhoneNumber in the .pbk file)
   • User name and password

3. I had to follow this third step to get it work: Uncheck the checkbox "Available to all users" AND restart after unchecking the checkbox! (thanks to https://linux.ee.ethz.ch/VpnConnectNmGnome)

That's it, with these steps I got it working!