Windows Phone 8.1 VPN Tutorial & Hints
Windows Phone 8.1 offers a lot of cool new usability features. Still, productivity for professionals has not been overlooked.
Whether you need to access your company's intranet or visit sites for personal use, VPN will come to rescue.
This tutorial will introduce you the new VPN functionality in Windows Phone 8.1, and explains how to setup and configure the VPN client. Note: VPN is only available on Windows Phone 8.1 or later.
The new and updated Windows Phone 8.1 VPN client operates on a wide range of enterprise routers, network, and security appliances. Two VPN tunneling protocols are supported:
IPSec (IKEv2) gateway - Supported natively
Type: Choose "L2TP with IPSec" from the drop-down menu Connect using: Tap on "Choose an item". Then tap on "user name+password+preshared key" whis is a very common connection type.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)-VPN gateway - Supported for third-party servers via a plug-in model
First, you need to get a VPN profile on your Windows Phone There are two ways to get a VPN profile on your phone:
Setup a workplace account if your company provides you a pre-configured VPN profile.
Create a VPN profile from scratch
We will focus on the later method here.
Create a VPN profile If you need to create a VPN profile on your own, you have to optain the VPN connection settings for your organization first. Then follow these steps on your Windows Phone:
Go to Settings > VPN.
Switch VPN Status to On, then tap Add (+).
Type the server name or IP address of your VPN server in the box.
Select the Type of VPN connection you need: IKEv2, L2TP with IPSec, or the name of the VPN service you use. (In some cases you need a special SSL VPN app; if you don't have one installed yet, tap the link to download one from the Store.)
Connect using: depending on what type of VPN connection you chose between the following options: i) User name+password, ii) Certificate, iii) L2TP with IPSec: User name+password+preshared key or Preshared key (L2TP with IPSec is only available if you have Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 (aka. GDR1) installed on your phone! Check to see which software version you have and find out if an update is available.) If you use a certificate for Connect using and can set Server certificate validation to On if you want to check every time that the server is authentic by comparing a certificate that's on it to one on your phone.
Switch Connect automatically to On if you want to automatically connect to the VPN when a company app or site requires it. Otherwise the profile will be a manual one. Tap on the profile when you want to connect to that VPN.
Set Send all traffic to On if you like all data go over your VPN or Off to limit the use to certain domain names or IP ranges of your choice.
Now give the profile a unique name in the Profile name box.
Advanced settings allows you to specify Proxy settings and a custom DNS suffix.
Then Save.
To connect to a VPN After you have created / installed a VPN profile on your phone, you're ready to go:
Go to Settings > VPN.
If you want to make changes to a profile tap and hold the profile name, and then tap Edit, Delete, Details, or Switch to automatic.
If you are connected to the VPN the Wi-Fi / cellular icon at the top of the screen will show a dot / square on the left like this.
If you use VPN regularly it's a good idea to add VPN as a quick action.
Additional hints:
If you want to use VPN as a way to secure your privacy, you can use a public VPN service. Here is a description how to use Hide my *** with WP8.1. If you are an Administartor and may like to set Up VPN Using System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager (scroll down).
If you want to know more about the VPN capabilities of your Lumia with Windows Phone 8.1 check out this Nokia Expert Center article and Microsoft Technet article.