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Delete excess VPN connection from Internet Connect
Authored by: Ganymede on Jun 02, '04 04:05:24AM

Having just set up a new VPN address, as my company changed carriers and circuits, I was quite interested to see this thread. I examined each of the methods mentioned here.

I tried gcole's suggestion, using Internet Connect: select the VPN icon in the toolbar, then the "Edit Configurations" drop-down list. Upon clicking the minus icon, all the configuration info was removed except the name, and the configuration remained in the configuration list at the left. Upon exiting, the icon was still in the toolbar; nothing I tried using this approach would remove it, nor even successfully rename it (the name I entered for the configuration shows up only in the configuration drop-down, and the icon retained its former name - very unfortunate, from my perspective).

I used the Property List Editor to examine my SystemConfiguration preferences (Panther). Definitely not for the faint-hearted! This extensive xml file has many entries and sub-entries, often with similar or redundant-appearing names. My two VPN services have very similar, and slightly misleading names: "VPN (PPTP)" and "Echo VPN (PPTP)". I was unfamiliar with the protocols and conventions; I am just learning about XML and Unix. However I am a seasoned programmer and know firsthand the consequences of hasty actions, and so left well enough alone. (A hint: click the "DUMP" button to see the source xml in the lower pane; that is almost certain to help you find the target you're looking for).

I then examined the help file for Internet Connect - the single, slight page covering VPN has barely a paragraph or two, but it does include directions for removing VPN configurations - exactly the instructions given above by Graff. Even when I finally removed the old config using this method, the names and many dialog boxes one can review on the way were quite confusing. Although this is obviously the method Apple intends people to use (the "right way") it is poorly documented.

Going to the Network System Preferences panel to do maintenance on configurations invoked from a separate application makes some sense to IT professionals (especially those of us warped by windoze), it is certainly NOT intuitive to "the rest of us"... maybe Apple thinks that only windoze-warped IT professionals would use VPN anyway! (I'm still trying to figure out SSH...)

Ganymede



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