Setting up L2TP on macOS 10.5+

1. Click on System Preferences in the apple menu.
2. Click on the "Network" icon which can be found under "Internet & Network".
3. Click + (the plus icon) at the bottom left corner of the window.

4. Select VPN for the interface, L2TP over IPSEC for the VPN Type and enter a descriptive name for the Service name, such as 'IS VPN (L2TP)'.

5. Click "Create" and the window will close.
6. In the list on the left hand side, click on the newly created L2TP connection.
7. At the "Configuration" pull-down menu, select "Add Configuration...". Enter a name for the connection that you would like to use. Click 'Create'.

8. At "Server Address", enter the server address. See our Network Details page to choose a VPN server address.
9. At "Account Name", enter your VPN login/username. Note that you can view your VPN username and password in the VPN Login Details section of the member's area. Your VPN login credentials are different from your IronSocket website log-in credentials.
10. Check the box next to 'Show VPN status in menu bar'

11. Click the "Authentication Settings" button.
12. In the popup, click on Password and put in your VPN password.
13. Click on Shared Secret under Machine Authentication and enter 'ironsocket' (without the quotes).
14. Click OK

15. Click on Advanced
16. Click on the option send all traffic over VPN connection
17. Click OK

18. Click Apply to save the configuration Your L2TP connection is setup now. Click on Connect and enjoy.

Setting up L2TP on macOS 10.4 or below

1. Open the Applications folder.
2. Open "Internet Connect".
3. If you see a padlock with the text "VPN (L2TP)", continue with the next step. If you do not see such a padlock, you have to add it: open the menu, choose "File" and then "New VPN Connection". You will be asked to choose between "L2TP over IPsec" and "PPTP". Select "L2TP over IPsec".
4. Click on the padlock with the text "VPN (L2TP)".
5. In the "Configuration" pull-down menu, select "Edit configurations...".
6. Update the connection details for your L2TP connection:
• Description: (Generic title for the connection)
• Server Address: (Find the VPN Server Addresses on our Network Details page)
• Account Name: (Your VPN Username. Note that you can view your VPN username and password in the VPN Login Details section of the member's area. Your VPN login credentials are different from your IronSocket website log-in credentials.)
• Enter "ironsocket" for the Shared Secret
7. Save settings.
8. Click "Connect".
9. You may be asked to enter your Keychain password.
10. The L2TP/IPsec connection will be set up.

Troubleshooting

I am getting error code 691 or "Authentication Failed" message: Access was denied because the username and/or password was invalid on the domain.
To resolve this issue: Check your Username and Password

• By default, your VPN username is not the same as the email address you have registered on IronSocket.com. Check your VPN credentials here.
• Passwords are case sensitive. Make sure you do not have the CAPS LOCK key on.
• If you are using L2TP, make sure you have entered the correct preshared key for authentication. Check the guide for setting up L2TP VPN on your operating system for how to set this preshared key.

I am getting error code 809 or "The VPN server did not respond" message: The network connection between your computer and the VPN server could not be established because the remote server is not responding.
This error usually comes when some firewall or router between client and server is blocking the ports used by VPN tunnel.

1. PPTP port (TCP port 1723) is blocked by a firewall/router.
2. L2TP port (UDP port 500, UDP port 4500) is blocked by a firewall/router.

Please contact your Administrator or your service provider to determine which device may be causing the problem.

If you have access to your router, also make sure PPTP-passthrough and L2TP-passthrough are enabled.

If you are still unable to connect, try using OpenVPN. OpenVPN does not require passthrough settings on router.