Introduction
This article will describe how to connect L2TP/IPsec VPN on Windows 10
Prerequisites
- Windows 10
- Access to your Windows 10 as Administrator or a user with administrator permissions
Step 1 – Log in to Windows 10
Click on the search icon in the Windows menu bar and search for control panel. You should see the Control Panel icon and click on it.
Open Network and Internet
Open Network and Sharing Center
Step 2 – Configure VPN
Click on Set up a new connection on a network
Select Connect to a workplace and click on Next
Click Use my Internet connection (VPN)
Enter your IP address in the Internet Address field. In our example, we use this IP, 193.33.61.185, click on Create
After you have clicked on Create the set up wizard will be closed.
Click Change adapter settings on the left side menu.
You will now see all available interfaces. Open Properties of the VPN connection interface
Open Security tab
Open dropdown of Type of VPN and select Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol with IPsec (L2TP/IPsec)
Click on Advanced settings. Select Use preshared key for authentication and fill in the preshared key which you created on the Windows Server. Apply it by clicking on OK.
Return back to the Security tab. Select Allow these protocols and check the following values:
- Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP)
- Microsoft CHAP Version 2 (MS-CHAP v2)
Apply the changes by clicking on OK.
Step 3 – Connect to VPN server
Open Network icon in the right bottom and click on VPN Connection
After you have clicked on VPN Connection a Connect button will be visible. Click on Connect
You will be asked to enter a User name and Password
Trying to connect.
Your VPN connection is established.
Step 4 – Check IP address
If you are routing all the traffic through VPN you see the VPN IP address of your VPN server. You can find your IP address by visiting whatismyip.com .
Conclusion
Congratulations, you have configured a VPN client on a Windows 10. You now know how to connect L2TP/IPsec VPN on Windows 10
Please see our knowledgebase for other articles on how to connect with VPN.
Surely there is some steps missing here? at the end of step 2
Andry, thanks for the information. We will update this article asap.
Andy, it's a bit late but we added the missing part at the end of step 2.
But you never did…?
What did we not do?
Preshared key entry for one thing
Thanks, we will update our article.
Hi Todd,
The missing part at the end of step 2 with the preshared key is added.
Hello, what needs to be changed at the end of step 2, it says "click Change Adapter Settings" but does not list settings… i went through the whole instruction set, and i can connect with a Mac OS client, but not windows… not sure why…
Hey Nick,
It came to my attention that some steps were missing at the end of step 2 which is added now. You should now be able to use this article to connect.
Keep getting the error 'LT2P Connection attempt failed because the security layer encountered a processing error during intial negotiations with the remote computer'.
In Step 2, near "Open Security tab" you can configure the security layer. I would start debugging from there.
after i connected to the vpn from my windows 10 machine, i could no longer use the internet – i cannot browse or access my email. how do allow access? i will probably find an answer searching around, but showing a solution to this problem would be a nice bonus.
Did you configure the server-side? You have to enable network traffic you can check our article here:
https://www.snel.com/support/how-to-set-up-an-l2tp-ipsec-vpn-on-windows-server-2019/
On step 2 configure VPN
I think we should type the VPN Server ip address.
Let me know if I made mistakes.
That's correct!
Hi there, do we need to setup port forwarding on the router.
i tried the above steps and didnt went through
It depends on your configuration. Our articles are written based on our network setup.
trouble with your network setup with this article is that you appear to have created a VPN network connection on a local network. Not entirely useless but less useful (not many people are trying to hide from other people on their own network). Incredible article though.
You must be young, please consider that the purpose of this type of VPN is to give access to a remote user (not on the same network) access to your network resources. That would mean the server is behind an internet-facing router. I'm sure the firewall settings for any router is easy and your reservation is unnecessary to simply say UDP 1701, 500, and 4500 need to be directed to the 2019 VPN server. But those aren't right either. maybe with all your article writing wisdom you can get your spirit to look a tiny bit deeper and answer the question so this impressive couple of articles can be useful to more than people testing this out.
🙂 said with love
> trouble with your network setup with this article is that you appear to have created a VPN network connection on a local network
This is not true, this connection has been made to a public IPv4 address (see screenshot).
> your reservation is unnecessary to simply say UDP 1701, 500, and 4500 need to be directed to the 2019 VPN server.
This article is not about Windows Server 2019.
Are you sure you're replying to the correct article?
Keep getting the error 'LT2P Connection attempt failed because the security layer encountered a processing error during intial negotiations with the remote computer'