HowTo: KDE4: KVpnc connections to PPTP Server (KVpnc 0.9.3 to MikroTik)

At work we use MikroTik as our PPTP VPN server, to allow employees into our internal network. Recently we've changed IP Addresses and we cannot get to a few remaining clients who have our older IP hard-coded into their firewalls, so I had to use a VPN to get to our old address for one particular client.

KDE's KVpnc application, while a great app that can connect to a whole lot of VPN endpoints, does have a whole lot of configuration options. This is both a benefit and a drawback, because sometimes a user (or an administrator) has no idea what needs to be set!

PPTP VPN is what I need to use, also known as Point-to-Point-Protocol, and also known as Microsoft VPN. But because the MikroTik is a GNU/Linux-based device, its settings aren't exactly the same as they would be for a MSWindows-based device (do those exist?).

After a bit of errors on my side, and getting the errors from the MikroTik side, I found settings for KVpnc that work for my connection. Please read along! This is for KVpnc 0.9.3 running on KDE 4.3.4, on Debian GNU/Linux Sid, but similar settings should work elsewhere.

First, you'll have to run KVpnc as the root user or with your 'sudo' user, to give the program enough control to edit the networking configuration:

To do this, you can launch from a command line (sudo kvpnc) or from the KDE KRunner dialog box (with [Alt][F2] if you're unfamiliar); from here you can run 'kdesudo kvpnc' if you have KDESudo installed (or kdesu):

or you can click on the Wrench icon to change the settings for that app:

Once KVpnc starts with root privileges, go through the New Connection Wizard to set things up, and then Edit that new profile to use the Authentication type of CHAP, not one of the two MSCHAP options:

 Click the above image to enlarge it

NOTE: In future attempts (after an upgrade to the MicroTik software), I've had to use MSCHAP to authenticate.

Good luck and enjoy your PPTP Connection!