I'm going to be wiping the XP install on my laptop to install Ubuntu for real (currently, it's running through Virtual Machine). Thankfully I realized that I'd need to deal with the VPN situation first, because it's giving me issues.

The working Windows solution is just a VPN connection in Network Connections - it's not Cisco, or any 3rd-party client. That being the case, I have exactly three pieces of information: the url to connect to, my username, and my password.

OpenVPN client appears to need a whole lot more information than this, including all sorts of key files. All the OpenVPN articles I've found so far deal mostly with setting up servers, which I don't need to do and in fact cannot touch, configure or play with. There's got to be an easier way...isn't there?

If you just want to use PPTP VPN with a Microsoft Windows server, then just install the pptp package. That's what I do on one of my old Ubuntu machines to connect to my Windows network at work.

Ah! My mistake was in thinking it was a magical true VPN, and then wondering where all the cert files went to.

Will give pptp a whirl (have just installed the nm-applet addon), and hopefully life will be rosy from there. Many thanks - you've probably saved me from either pulling my hair out or getting fired ;-)