Connecting your iPhone to the office VPN is easy to configure and will allow you to be productive outside the office with ease. Using the PPTP VPN service on your iPhone will allow you to perform tasks as if you were sitting at your desk in the office. In the below scenario we explain configuring a PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) VPN connection from your iPhone to a Cisco RV016 that is already configured to accept PPTP connections located in your office. The VPN (Virtual Private Network) configuration allows you to enable and disable the connection with ease as you will want it disabled if you are not using the connection to sa ve on bandwidth.
Configure iPhone PPTP VPN Connection:
- iPhone Settings: Tap the Settings icon located on your iPhone desktop.
- General Settings: Next touch the General Settings link located second from the bottom of the below image.
- Network Settings: Touch the Network link which is the third link from the top of the General settings configuration page as shown in the below image.
- VPN Settings: Now touch the VPN configuration link located above the WiFi link as shown in the below image.
- Add VPN Configuration: It is time to add the VPN connection by touching the “Add VPN Configuration” link as shown in the below image.
- Enter VPN Settings: Touch PPTP to enter the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol VPN settings as shown below.
To connect to a Cisco RV016 you will need to enter a Description, Server info (IP Address or Hostname), and Account (username). Leave the Password field empty so every time you connect you are required to enter in the password since that is the most secure way to configure this PPTP VPN connection. You can also choose to turn the “Send All Traffic” configuration On or Off which will depend on your preference. What this means is that all traffic will be sent over the VPN connection or only traffic destined for the remote network you are connecting to. If you only need to connect to the one network that is configured on the remote end of the VPN connection then I would suggest setting the “Send All Traffic” to Off. If you need to connect to the Internet during your VPN connection it will be extremely slow since it will be required to traverse the VPN connection before going out to the Internet which can really slow things down.
- Save VPN Connection: Once all of the settings are verified correct touch the Save button located to the right of the title “Add Configuration” near the top of the page. This will save your VPN connection and make it available each time you want to make a VPN connection. If you have more than one VPN connection configured then the connection with a check mark next to it will be the default connection that is used each time you turn VPN On.
- Enable VPN Connection: Test the VPN connection by touching the On button. You can also turn the VPN connection On from the initial Settings window by touching the On button there as well. Since we did not enter the password in the configuration screen once the VPN is turned On a password screen will open where you will be required to enter the password for the VPN connection as shown below.
Once connected a VPN icon will display next to the WiFi icon in the top left of every iPhone screen as shown in the below image.
- Test VPN Connection: Once the VPN connection is established attempt to connect to a remote device either by a web browser (Safari), an SSH connection (iSSH or Touch Term), VNC (VNC Lite), or whatever service you will be using over the VPN connection. You could also test by attempting to Ping devices on the remote office network using an application like iNet (shown in the below image) or Ping.
After configuration you will be able to enable or disable your PPTP VPN connection at any time by setting the VPN button to On or Off at any time. If the VPN connection fails you will see a pop up message similar to the below on the iPhone.
The first thing to check would be if there is already a VPN connection made using your credentials from another computer. Typically the configuration on the Cisco RV016 will only allow one connection with a username and password. If that does not resolve your issue go back and double check your PPTP VPN connection settings.
The VPN connection from your iPhone to your office network should hopefully save you some time and if you are lucky keep you out off the office more often than not!
The iPhone Book: How to Do the Most Important, Useful & Fun Stuff with Your iPhone, 2nd Edition (Paperback)
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Cisco RV016 16-port 10/100 VPN Router – Multi WAN (Personal Computers)
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I have a vpn connection from my house to my office would I be able to do the same thing from my iphone?
Hello Erick,
Yes you should be able to do so without issue. It will depend on the specific technology used at the office but more than likely it will not be a problem.
Thanks.
alex