{"id":10503,"date":"2010-02-03T18:49:32","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T17:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/how-to-configure-a-cisco-vpn-client-in-snow-leopard\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T02:16:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:16:28","slug":"how-to-configure-a-cisco-vpn-client-in-snow-leopard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-configure-a-cisco-vpn-client-in-snow-leopard\/","title":{"rendered":"How to configure a Cisco VPN client in Snow Leopard"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the great things about Snow Leopard is that you no longer need Cisco’s VPN Client<\/strong><\/a> to connect over a private network. Snow Leopard has its own Cisco VPN network configuration tool that works within OS X 10.6. Cisco’s VPN client doesn’t even work with Snow Leopard so if you’ve still got it on your system, you can dump it in the Trash. However, setting up a Cisco VPN network might be a little tricky for those doing it for the first time so here is a simple guide.<\/p>\n

Go to System Preferences<\/strong> and select Network<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\"system-pref2.png\"<\/p>\n

Use the “+”<\/strong> symbol at the bottom of the list of network connections on the left-hand side to add a new network.<\/p>\n

\"add-network.png\"<\/p>\n

Next to Interface select VPN<\/strong> and next to VPN Type, select Cisco IPSec<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\"vpn-cisco.png\"<\/p>\n

You then need to configure it. For this you will need the .PCF<\/strong> file that you uploaded to your old Cisco VPN client. Open it with Text Editor<\/strong>. You have to copy some of these details into the configuration boxes.<\/p>\n

\"screen-capture-9.png\"<\/p>\n

In the .PCF file, you will find your Server Address<\/strong> usually something like Host=345.535.453.7<\/strong><\/p>\n

Account Name<\/strong> is the your personal login name you usually used for your Cisco VPN Connection listed in your PCF file as something like Username=Joe.Bloggs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Finally Password<\/strong> is your own personal password. It doesn’t matter if you enter this now as you’ll be asked for it again later anyway.<\/p>\n

Then you need to setup the Authentication Settings<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"screen-capture-10.png\"<\/p>\n

The Shared Secret<\/strong> is an encrypted password you’ll find listed next to enc_GroupPwd=<\/strong> in the .PCF file. You need to decrypt it to Plaintext which you can do by using this decoder<\/strong><\/a> to convert it. The result should be displayed something like: Plaintext password:<\/strong> 89fdfsPdfs1D9itr<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, Group Name<\/strong> is located in your .PCF file next to GroupName=<\/strong> and is the generic group name that all VPN users on your company network use (such as “Teleworking” or “Softonic”).<\/p>\n

And that’s just about it. It’s a good idea to make sure the check box Show VPN status in menu bar<\/strong> is ticked in the network setup dialog box as you can then quickly connect and disconnect your Cisco VPN network and see how long you’ve been connected:<\/p>\n

\"vpnconn.png\"<\/p>\n

I can’t say I’ve noticed any major speed improvements in the VPN since I switched to Snow Leopard but its nice to know that I need one less application to connect to a private network and thus, one more badly needed space in my Dock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the great things about Snow Leopard is that you no longer need Cisco’s VPN Client to connect over a private network. Snow Leopard has its own Cisco VPN network configuration tool that works within OS X 10.6. Cisco’s VPN client doesn’t even work with Snow Leopard so if you’ve still got it on … Continue reading “How to configure a Cisco VPN client in Snow Leopard”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2009,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[2441],"tags":[2963],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-10503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionsnow-leopard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335136,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10503\/revisions\/335136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10503"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=10503"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=10503"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=10503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}