PublicVPN.com

Before setting up the VPN, be sure your installation is up–to–date by running Software Update. At the time of this writing the latest Mac OS X version was 10.5.1.

First, open the System Preferences by going to the Apple menu and choosing "System Preferences." Or choose "System Preferences" from the Dock.

Next, click on the 'Network' system preference.

In the 'Network' system preference there is a list of network connections on the left side. Click the '+' icon (hilighted in red) to make a new connection for the VPN.

When you click the '+' icon, a new service sheet appears. Click on the 'Interface' popup menu to see the list of choices.

In the list, select 'VPN'.

The 'VPN Type' should automatically be set to 'L2TP over IPSec', as seen in the picture below. Click on the "VPN Type" popup menu.

Choose "PPTP"

Next, set the Service Name to "PublicVPN.com (PPTP) by typing into the green box (see below).

The screen should now look like this. Click 'Create' to create the new connection.

Now that you have a VPN connection, you'll need to make a Configuration for it. Click the 'Configuration' popup menu.

If you've set the VPN up before, you may see configurations in the list. Be sure to click "Add Configuration..." to add a PublicVPN.com configuration (see below).

In the next screen, type 'PublicVPN.com' for the configuration name. Then click 'Create'.

Now that we've created the configuration, we can start entering your VPN information.

In the green box, enter 'gateway.publicvpn.net' as the 'Server Address.'

In the blue box, enter your PublicVPN.com username as the 'Account Name.'

Then, click on the 'Authentication Settings...' button. A new sheet drops down.

In the blue box, enter your PublicVPN.com password as the Password.

When you're done, click 'OK'

Next, we'll need to adjust some of the advanced VPN settings. To do that, first click the 'Advanced..." button. See the screen below for its location (it's hilighted in red).

For the VPN to work effectively, the "Send all traffic over VPN connection" checkbox should be marked. In the screen below, it's hilighted in green. Make sure the checkbox is checked.

Optionally, check the "Use verbose logging" option, hilighted in blue. That will make it easier to see what's happening if you are having connection problems.

When you're done checking the options, click the "OK" button.

To actually save the configuration, click the 'Apply' button in the bottom right of the window.

Now when you want to connect to the VPN, you can either choose the VPN configuration from the VPN menu or select your VPN connection in the connection list and click the "Connect" button (see below).