Windows 2000

1. Right click the desktop icon My Network Places and then select properties.

2. Open the Make New Connection icon. If this is the first dial-up connection then you will see a screen prompting for location information. Enter your area code and outside line access code, if required, and then click OK. If a connection had already existed, then skip to step 4.

3. For the first connection, you will then get a screen Phone and Modem Options with a list of dialing locations. Select the appropriate location and click OK.

4. On the Network Connection Wizard screen click Next.

5. Select the third option, Connect to a private network through the Internet and then click Next.

6. Users with existing dial-up connections will see this next screen. First connection users skip to step 7. Select Do not dial the initial connection and then click Next.

7. In the Host name or IP address dialog box type Your Site URL and then click Next.

8. On the Connection Availability screen select if the connection should be made available to all users, or just yourself, and then click Next.

9. Select a unique name to identify the connection and then click Finish.

Before we try to connect, let's set some other connection parameters.

10.  Right click the connection we just created and select properties. The General tab displays the address of the connection. From this screen you can also control if a dial-up connection should run before the VPN connection, for those users that don't have permanent connections to their ISPs.

11. Select the Options tab, change the entry idle time before hang-up to a reasonable timeout period such as 30min or less.

12. Select the Security tab and check the box Require data encryption. 

Although this setting will slow down the data transfers, it does protect your ftp session password from being viewed by others on the Internet.  Click OK.

The Networking and Sharing tabs do not require any changes from the default settings. 

Click OK to close the screen.