How to setup a VPN Server on Windows XP Professional

I’ve been asked several times: how can I setup a VPN. Here I put together a tutorial of my own.

Problem: I am a system administrator in a company with three offices. An ISP in town provides me microwave-radio connectivity between two of my offices and their base station, and a VSAT connectivity to the third as it’s in another part of the country. Heres how I setup my VPN server at the HQ.

My server, for this exercise is a Windows XP Professional, with service pack2.

1) click your start menu >> control panel >> network and internet connections >> network connections
Click: create a new connection

2) You’ll get the ‘Welcome to the New Connection’ wizard, click ‘Next’ to continue

3) Select ‘setup an advanced connection’, click ‘next’ to continue

4) select ‘accept incoming connections’, click ‘next’ to continue

5) As your connection will be over/through your ISPs NOC, theres no need to bother
about this. Click ‘next’ to continue

6) The Incoming VPN connection page opens, select ‘allow virtual private connections’ and click ‘next’ to continue

7) Here, you need to choose which users/usernames are allowed to make VPN connections into your server. At least there should be one user. Check the box on the left to select a user, and click ‘properties’ to configure a password for your selected user. Click ‘ok’ when you’re done.

Note: to add more users, you can click on the add button and you’ll be prompted to add a user name and password. Click ok.

 

Click ‘next’ to continue

To define the range of IP addresses of the connecting parties, select the check box beside ‘Internet Protocol(TCP/IP)’ and click ‘properties’. I have decided to specify the IP addresses of the 5-VPN connections/users at my branch starting at ‘from’ and ending at ‘to’. If your VPN server is your DHCP server select the first option or else, allow the calling party to specify its own IP address. Click ‘ok’ to continue.

9) click ‘next’ to continue

10) whew, so fast, ure done.

11) back to your network connections, you should see the ‘Incoming connection’ icon, with no clients connected –if no clients are connected,

Else, it shows the number of VPN connections and who(username ‘test) is connected.

To disconnect a user, right click on the username(test in this case) and select ‘disconnect’.

 

To be continued: how to setup a VPN client on Windows XP Professional