Northern Illinois University

Information Technology Services

PPTP Configuration on PalmOS 5.x

Note: Mergic is included with PalmOne wireless cards (integrated and SD). For information about getting Mergic for non-PalmOne wireless cards, visit the Mergic home page at www.mergic.com.

Due to the variety of configurations and proprietary settings of individual PDA's, it is difficult to create documentation that will cover all devices. The instructions below were created using a Palm Tungsten C running Palm OS v. 5.2.1. For assistance configuring a PDA, please contact the ITS Customer Support Center at helpdesk@niu.edu or 815-753-8100.

  1. From the System menu, tap the Wi-Fi Setup icon.

    Figure 1: System menu.
  2. Tap Next to begin the Setup guide

    Figure 2: Wi-Fi Setup Screen.
  3. If you are in a building with wireless connectivity, Swen Parson, for example, you will see a wireless network corresponding to the building name.
    Select this network and tap Next.

    Figure 3: Wi-Fi Network list
  4. Once this phase is complete, the VPN client must now be configured
    To begin doing so, tab the VPN Setup button.

    Figure 4: VPN Setup Screen.
  5. Tap Next to begin the configuration

    Figure 5: VPN Setup Guide.
  6. Enter relevant VPN information
    Type NIU vpn for the account field
    Type your login ID for username (z123456 or a10abc1, for example)
    Leave password at prompt, or tap the word 'prompt' and enter your password if you wish to have it saved.
    Type vpn1.ess.niu.edu for the VPN server name

    Figure 6: VPN configuration screen.
  7. VPN configuration is complete. To force the Palm to use VPN to connect every time, tap VPN Prefs...

    Figure 7: VPN completion screen.
  8. Select the drop-down arrow next to VPN, and select "Enabled"
    In the account field, select NIU vpn from the drop down
    Tap done.

    Figure 8: VPN preferences.