Windows 10: That's how you configure L2TP/IPSec to use with CyberGhost

Please make sure the following requirements are met:

Windows 10

A CyberGhost account
Info: Here's how to create a CyberGhost account online
Info: Here's how to manage your CyberGhost account

A CyberGhost subscription
Info: How to purchase or upgrade a subscription
Info for prepaid subscribers: How to enter an activation key

Step 1

Visit your CyberGhost VPN online account and login with your Premium Username and Password

Click on 'My Devices' and in the 'Add a new device' section > click 'Others'.

Click Configure new device and in the new window, choose your desired protocol, in our example: L2TP and your preferred country and server group, as described below.

Also type in a Device name to assign to your device, then configure the parameters for the new device.

FYI: The Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) allows operations of multiple tunnels and can be considered as very safe. For authentication it uses PAP/CHAP, but it lacks its own encryption, which is why CyberGhost uses L2TP in connection with the encryption technology IPSec as 'L2TP/IPSec'

Country: Since native protocol connections may only be used with exactly one server you now have to choose the country you want to surf from; the server to be used in this country will be chosen by CyberGhost automatically.
Server group: Depending on the chosen country as well as the availability of different server types as an attribute of your current plan you can also define a server group to use:

After setting up your preferred settings, save them with 'Save and download configuration'.

To view the L2TP credentials that are generated for you on the configuration dashboard, press View Configuration.

Once the new page is opened, your connection credentials are generated for you but make note of the following information:

Server group: This is the address of the country (server) you want to be connected with, e.g. '12345-1-ca.cg-dialup.net'. Note: This address changes with every country you have chosen in the step before. The actual single server to be used will be chosen automatically by CyberGhost.
User name: A solely for this protocol generated user name. This is NOT your regular CyberGhost account user name, it's used only to authenticate with our servers via Manual Configurations.
Password (you need to check the "Show Password" option in order to see it): A solely for protocol usage generated password. This is NOT your regular CyberGhost account Password, it's used only to authenticate with our servers via Manual Configurations.
Pre-Shared Key

Please download the configuration file. For that please click on 'Download configuration' and download the config file to your computer (it's recommended that you create a special folder for the config, somewhere accessible like your Desktop).

Step 2

Create a VPN connection on your Windows PC. For that open the Start Menu, click on 'Settings' and then on 'Network & Internet' ...

Click on 'VPN' and then 'Add a VPN Connection'.

Enter the following configuration details:

VPN provider: Windows (built-in)
Connection name: Type a name for your new connection. If you plan to create more connections to different locations make sure, you label each connection thoroughly by adding the country name, eventually the server group and maybe even the protocol, so you can tell one from another, e. g. 'CyberGhost L2TP'.
Server name or address: Add the server address you want to connect to, e.g. '1-ro.cg-dialup.net'.
VPN type: Choose 'Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol with IPSec (L2TP/IPSec)'.
Pre-shared key: Enter the Pre-shared key generated at the device config in step 1 (usually 'CyberGhost')
Type of sign-in info: Choose 'User name and password'.
User name: Please enter the user name created in step 1. DO NOT use your regular CyberGhost user name.
Password: Please enter the password generated in step 1. DO NOT use your regular CyberGhost password.

Here's an example of a fully configured L2TP connection:

A native protocol connection addresses just one single server. If you want to surf from different locations, aka use different servers in different countries, you need to set up as many connections as locations you want (which means you have to do all steps again for each single country). If you want to be able to connect to five different countries, for example, you need to set up five different connections, from which you can choose later on.

Click on 'Save'.

Step 3

Back in your VPN list window scroll down a bit to 'Related Settings' and click on 'Change adapter options'.

Right click on your connection and choose the entry 'Properties'.

Switch to the 'Security' tab and set the following two options:

1. Data encryption: Change it to "Maximum strength encryption (disconnect if server declines) - this equals that AES-256bit encryption will be in effect.

2. Check the "Allow these protocols" option.