With my current client I’ve been granted access to their internal network via VPN with the caveat that I have to use a specific VPN supplier, namely Checkpoint. Luckily they do have a VPN client for OS X called “VPN-1 SecureClient R56”. It works pretty well actually but I have had a problem when not using it that the airport task runs at 100% processor until I kill both SecureClient and airport. Not ideal. The Apple help on the subject is worse than useless:
Make sure your third-party VPN client software is up-to-date. Contact your network administrator or the manufacturer of your VPN client software.
What I have found after some playing around is if either the VPN or airport are in use then the problem doesn’t occur, if neither are being used is the time when the processor ramps up. So if you remember to turn off the airport connection before you shutdown, then when you restart you don’t get the processor hogging issue. I used to just leave it on all the time so this is an annoyance but it saves having to go through the whole killing tasks process after startup each morning.
@1 why not? It’s not like there’s a standard for all this. At my company, we use a different suplier again, which is purely Windows-only, i.e. I’d never get in with my Mac, even if they wanted me to.
@Matt: the situation you outline is a bit of a pain, I agree. Could this be a job for… Applescript??
@1 – Technically you’re right, I could use the native Apple VPN client but once you sign a document stating you will use a certain bit of software then it’s usually good practice to go along with your agreement!
@2 – Now that’s a good idea, never had a reason to play with AppleScript before. If only I had the spare time. Oh well another thing to add to the to do list.
Matt
Doh! I just checked the website for the comment at #1 – I think we got duped Matt ;o)
Bloody Comment Spammers!