Ubuntu Linux 11.04 and Microsoft VPN quirks

Just tried and found that Ubuntu Linux Natty 11.04 now works really well with Microsoft VPN via Network Manager. I reminisce the old days of config files and console commands just to get the pptp client to connect, now it can all be done in the network manager GUI. Its not perfect as it has a couple of quirks.

Firstly if you don’t see any VPN menu in Network Manager, simply run

sudo apt-get install network-manager-pptp network-manager-pptp-gnome

If the VPN menu still does not appear, you’ll need to restart network-manager.

sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager restart

Once you see the VPN menu, you can select “Configure VPN” which opens the network connections with the VPN tab. The rest of the steps are fairly obvious except you need to enable “Use Point-to-Point encryption (MPPE)” which is not enabled by default.

The next quirk is after adding the new VPN connection, it does not appear in Network Manager

See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-pptp/+bug/113270

Essentially, restart network-manager as mentioned above to see the new VPN connection in the VPN Connections drop down and you should be good to go