Configuring the Windows VPN client using Windows 7.  (configuring the Vista VPN client is exactly the same)

• To start the connection configuration, open Network and sharing  Center located under Control Panel and click on "Set up a new Connection or Network".
• When the wizard starts select "Connect to a Workplace", and Next

• Now  select "No, create a new Connection", and Next

• Select "Use my Internet connection (VPN)"

• Enter either the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the site to which you are connecting, or its public IP address. Then name the connection with a relevant name such as the site or city. You also need to check the appropriate box if other users of the same PC will need to have the same VPN connection available to them. In this case also select "Don't connect now".

• Finally enter the user credentials. This can all be left blank but you may wish to enter a user name to save with the connection. For security reasons I don't recommend saving the password, but you can. The domain name is not usually needed and can actually sometimes cause conflicts if added.

• Then click close to complete the set up.

• To establish the VPN connection, click on the Network Icon in the lower right (red arrow), then click on the name of your connection, in this case London, and then click connect. Assuming you have not saved the password you will be presented with a logon window with the user name already filled in and a box in which to enter the password. For the record, if the connection fails it will no longer aut-fill the user name for te connection.

•  Note: VPN's require that the subnet from which your connect be different than that of the LAN to which you are connection. As an example, if your local LAN uses 192.168.1.0/24 (192.168.1.x) you cannot connect to a site using that same subnet. Therefore it is always best to use a LAN subnet that is not common, to avoid conflicts.