VPN Access

This documentation is old. For McGill Supported VPN please use: McGill Cisco VPN

The department offers a VPN through PPTP and IPSec through the following 2 servers, depending on which protocol your client supports:

• pptp.cs.mcgill.ca
• ipsec.cs.mcgill.ca

MacOS Setup

1. Open the Network page of System Preferences.
2. At the bottom left of the window, click the small plus sign.
3. From the first dropdown of the popup window, select "VPN". Front the second dropdown, select "L2TP over IPSec". Enter a name for the service such as "School of Computer Science" Then click "create" to close the popup.
   
4. Enter the server address: ipsec.cs.mcgill.ca and your computer science username
   
5. Click on "Authentication Settings"
6. Select "password" and enter your Computer Science Password for User Authentication. Select "Shared Secret" and enter "KEY from /usr/local/pkgs/VPN/Pre-Shared-Key.txt" for Machine Authentication. Then click "ok" to save the settings.
   
7. Click on "Advanced" and select "Send all traffic over VPN connection" then click on "ok"
   
8. Click on "connect" to test the connection. This will prompt you to apply the changes which you should agree to.

Windows 10 Setup

1. Open Settings > Network > VPN then click on Add VPN
2. Enter the following information for each field
   • VPN Provider: Windows (built-in)
   • Connection name: School of Computer Science
   • Server Name or Address: Ipsec.cs.mcgill.ca
   • VPN Type: L2TP/IPSec with pre-shared key
   • Pre shared key: KEY from /usr/local/pkgs/VPN/Pre-Shared-Key.txt
   • Type of sign-in info: User name and password
   • Username: Your Computer Science username
   • Password: Your Computer Science password
   • Remember my sign-in info: checked
3. Click save
4. Click on the VPN connection you just created, and then click connect when it appears
5. To confirm the settings you entered, Click on the VPN connection you just created, and then click Advanced options. The Connection Properties should look similar to the following: