Q: Can I set up multiple profiles with the Cisco AnyConnect vpn.mit.edu service?

This article refers to the Cisco AnyConnect VPN. If you're looking for information on the Prisma Access VPN Beta that uses the GobalConnect app, see: Prisma Access VPN Landing Page. If you're not sure which service you're using, see: [istcontrib:How do I know if I'm using the Cisco AnyConnect VPN or the Prisma Access VPN?]

Context

• Cisco AnyConnect VPN service from vpn.mit.edu
• VPN service for the MIT Community

Answer

With the previous stand-alone VPN client a few members of the community set up multiple profiles locally on their machine. The primary reason for doing so was if you had a second VPN service at a company or other institution to connect to, that is similar to MIT's. The new Cisco AnyConnect VPN service uses remote provisioning from a particular VPN server, in our case vpn.mit.edu to remove the need for any local profile setup or configuration. This also means that you cannot add local profiles on your machine in addition to MIT's central profiles.

However, multiple VPN clients (and remote services) can usually coexist on the same machine without issues. If the third party (company or other institution) you are connecting to in addition to MIT makes available its own VPN web service or client, you can usually install that along-side MIT's without difficulty, and use to to connect to your third-party service while continuing to use vpn.mit.edu to connect to MIT.

Of course your computer can only be connected to one VPN service at any one time.