iPhone’s VPN is a curmudgeon: forgets your password, won’t accept letters

VPN Password As much as we like the iPhone, it’s obvious that it has its share of shortcomings. Fortunately, most of those fall under the heading of “missing features” rather than outright bugs. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have examples of the latter as well. Reader Lindsay sent us a question about some issues that myself and several other Macworld writers have encountered.

If you spend some time working remotely from your office, you’re probably familiar with Virtual Private Networks (VPN), an encrypted network protocol that makes it appear as though you’re logged in on your company’s network, no matter where you are. The iPhone does have VPN functionality, and while I’ve used it successfully, it has some quirks.

For one thing, it seems to refuse to remember my VPN password, even if I enter it under Settings -> General -> Network -> VPN -> Settings. If you leave that password field blank, it reads “Ask Every Time.” The trouble is it seems to revert to that setting after I disconnect from the VPN.

That’s irritating, but not nearly as irritating as what happens when you try to login to your VPN with “Ask Every Time” set. The iPhone prompts you to enter your password, but instead of giving you the full virtual keyboard it gives you only a numeric phone keypad, with no way to enter letters. So much for putting the “alpha” in “alphanumeric.”

Whoopsie. I’m going to file that under bugs, but we’d hope that Apple will fix this with a software update post haste.

Category: Software

Posted by Dan Moren on Jul 9 2007, 4:18 PM ET

Comments (7)

I think Apple is right in not saving VPN passwords. If your phone is lost or stolen, you don't want others to have access to your office network, do you?

Posted by aerodr | July 9, 2007 8:20 PM

@aerodr I don't think this is a security option, though. For one thing, I can secure my iPhone with a passcode anyway, so if I'm concerned about my VPN password, that'd be the way to go. Second of all, even if it was a security option, that makes it all the more imperative that they fix the ability to enter passwords with letters—unless that too is a security option. ;)

Posted by Dan Moren | July 9, 2007 8:24 PM

I agree that the numeric keypad vs. alphanumeric keypad is probably a bug. No good reason to not allow letters in your VPN password.

I use VPN extensively for work as well and have never been able to store my VPN password on the platform from which I connect, even if a passcode/password is required to log into that machine, because the IT folks want that extra layer of authentication. I thought it might be possible that Apple took the step to help the IT folks with their paranoia. :)

Posted by aerodr | July 9, 2007 9:39 PM

Enter a wrong all-numeric password, and then you'll get a "full" keyboard from which you can enter the proper password.

-rob.

Posted by griffman | July 11, 2007 9:23 AM

I connect to the internet through VPN (I know, wierd riight?) and for encryption the option is set to "none" but I can't get the iPhone to set this option. When I hit save for the VPN settings it goes back to "maximum" encryption. Anyone know when this might be patched?

Posted by Gonzalo | July 24, 2007 8:31 AM

I wanted to know how to setup my VPN on my linksys WRVS4400N and then my iPhone to work together. I'm very new to using VPN but like its abilities. Can someone help me?

Posted by avel | January 2, 2008 5:00 PM

Hello I have the Apple Itouch with their latest update and it has built in VPN support. It works fine with my VPN account from http://www.strongvpn.com . I'm not sure but the Iphone should be a similar setup method.

If you have any problems their support can help.

Here's how I did mine:

I went into my ITouch into
Settings - General - Network - VPN -

My settings were as followed, I choose
PPTP
Account (username from strongvpn.com)
Pass (again from strongvpn.com)
Encryption Level - Auto
Proxy - Off
Send All Traffic - On
RSA SecuriID - Off

Hope that helps :)

Posted by PB | January 27, 2008 4:52 PM

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