To start, you will need to install pptpclient, this can be achieved by:
sudo apt-get install pptp-linux
Next, Create a file in /etc/ppp/peers with arbitrary name and the following contents:
pty "pptp $VPNHOSTNAME --nolaunchpppd --debug"
name $USERNAME
password $PASSWORD
remotename PPTP
require-mppe-128
require-mschap-v2
refuse-eap
refuse-pap
refuse-chap
refuse-mschap
noauth
debug
persist
maxfail 0
defaultroute
replacedefaultroute
usepeerdns
Where $VPNHOSTNAME is your VPN host name, $PASSWORD is your VPN password and $USERNAME is your VPN username.
After you have done that, you should do:
sudo pon $FILENAME
where $FILENAME is the name of the file you saved earlier. Or you should do this to see debug messages (this command will display logs until connection off):
pon $FILENAME debug dump logfd 2 nodetach
To start your VPN client on boot, you can follow the instructions on http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/howto-debian.phtml (point 8 or 9, Hand configuration section)
An alternate method to make your VPN client run on boot is to make a script /etc/init.d/pptp containing these contents:
#! /bin/sh
case "$1" in
start)
sleep 10
pon $/etc/ppp/peers/FILENAME
echo "PPTP Started"
;;
stop)
poff $/etc/ppp/peers/FILENAME
echo "PPTP Stopped"
;;
*)
echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/pptp {start|stop}"
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0
Then run:
update-rc.d [filename of script] defaults
To make it run at startup.