[fobside]

Is the OS X built in protocol IPSec? Does anyone know how this works when going through NAT?

[fobside]

Apparently it's PPTP. Should my regular connection to the internet be disconnected when I connect to the VPN? Also, once I'm connected, how can I view the files that are being shared on the VPN? Sorry to ask so many questions. Thanks in advance for any help.

[fobside]

Okay, I figured out I can just mount shares normally once I am connected through the VPN, but it's incredibly slow. The Windows machines can open the shares and play files right off the machine, but I can't even open up small text files. It took me 15 minutes to open up one mp3 being shared. Is this a problem with the built in VPN client or what? Can anyone recommend third party software to connect to a PPTP VPN?

[ghporter]

I don't have a ready recommendation for a third party client, but I can theorize that the problem you're having is one of probably two things. First, the built in client may just be VERY SLOW with shared resources-I doubt that, but its settings could play a part in how quickly things open. The second possibility is that your VPN connection isn't optimized-you don't say what kind of broadband connection you have, so I can't go any farther than that, theorywise.

[fobside]

We basically created a "WAN" within our network, so the connection was just across the switch to the firewall. I believe it's just the built in client. I had a friend try to connect as well and it was near impossible to open a small .gif file.