KB ID 0001197 Dtd31/05/16

Problem

Starting with Mac OS X 10.6 it is now possible to connect to a Cisco IPSec VPN without having to download any extra software. Main Set Up Steps Before you. Mac users running macOS Sierra have various options to set up IPVanish, the VPN service we found to be among the best available. They can either: a) use the macOS desktop client; b) manually set it up via System Preferences; c) use an OpenVPN client. In this article we will guide you through the different.

Here we are dealing with the older IPSEC VPN method of remote VPNs, NOT AnyConnect. There is/was a VPN client for Mac OSX which you can still download. But modern versions of OSX have the Cisco IPSec VPN client built into them.

I’m assuming you have already configured the firewall, if not see the article below;

Solution

Open your network preferences and add in a new connection > Interface = VPN > VPN Type = Cisco IPSec > Service Name = A sensible name you will recognise, (like connection to work, or home etc.)

Server address is the public IP, (or name if you have DNS setup*) of your Cisco Firewall > Enter your VPN username > I don’t put in the password, so I will have to type in in manually > Click Authentication Settings.

*For DNS you will need a static public IP, and a registered domain name. The ASA DOES NOT support DNS updates to online services like DynDNS or No-IP etc. It does support DDNS but means the server that leases you your public address is supposed to update your DNS for you, and unless you are your own ISP, and you host your own public DNS records, this wont work!

Here you need to supply the ‘shared secret’ for the VPN tunnel, and the Group Name. Your firewall admin should give these to you. If they don’t know, tell them to run ‘more system:running-config’ on the firewall and give you the shared secret and ‘group-policy’/’tunnel-group’ name for this remote VPN > OK.

Nearly every time you use DHCP, the firewall with either lease you an address from a ‘pool’ of VPN addresses, or broker the connection, and use your internal DHCP server.