shortcut/alias to VPN server

The simpler solution is to use VPN-on-demand, a feature of the VPN system that will automatically open the tunnel as soon as a specific hostname is accessed.

In System Preferences -> Network -> VPN -> Advanced -> VPN on demand you can add a list of domains that will trigger the VPN.

Then all you need is some link to a resource in that domain - for example a URL to a web site inside the VPN, or an alias to a file server, etc.

As soon as you open that resource, VPN on demand will jump in and establish the connection.

You can save an .afploc file in the Connect to server menu:

afp://<FQDN server name or IP>/<sharename>

and save it in the list using the + sign.

This file can then be found in the user Bookmarks/Favorites folder.

You can drag this file to the dock and you can rename it and change the icon.

but when entering the exact address (afp://ip_address/FKDA) in VPN on Demand, it doesn't activate the vpn

You didn't read closely enough. VPN on demand requires that you enter the DOMAIN NAME that should trigger the VPN connection. Not a URL.

e.g. if the URL you're accessing is afp://server.domain.local/sharepoint then the domain name would be server.domain.local.

Without checking, I don't know if an IP address is sufficient - probably not since I could imagine VPN on Demand intercepts name lookups, so you may need to use the name of the server on the internal network, not its IP address. If that's the case you'd need to ensure that there's valid, working DNS for your internal network.

I haven't used VPN on demand but is should open a VPN connection to the right network when you try to reach a service on that network.

But I think the public and the private domainname must be the same otherwise I don't understand how your computer can find it. (I couldn't get it to work with an .afploc file - probably missing something).

In Tiger (?) you could save a standalone Internetconnection doubleclickable VPN settings file for a site. Doesn't seem to be present in Leopard.


I just manually connect to the site using VPN and then use an .afploc file to connect to the server/share.

But I think the public and the private domainname must be the same otherwise I don't understand how your computer can find it

I don't think that's the case.

I haven't verified this, but I believe that VPN-on-demand sits on top of the name resolver. Every time you perform a name lookup it checks to see if that name is in its list of VPN-on-demand addresses. If it is, it brings up the VPN tunnel before resolving the hostname. If the hostname isn't in its list then the request passes through to the normal name lookup processes.

In this way it's possible to trigger the VPN on domains and hostnames that are completely private and not exposed to the outside world.