Setting Up Your Connection Profiles

  • Article

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 Foundation, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Vista

Each time you run the CMAK wizard, you create a connection profile. You can create as many profiles as needed to support each specific target audience. After creating an initial profile, you can use the CMAK wizard to edit it. You can save the edited profile under the same name to overwrite the existing profile, or you can specify a different service name and file name to save it to a separate profile (preserving the existing profile as it was before you started the edit).

Important

If you change the file name, be sure to change the service name also. If a user installs two connection profiles with the same service name but different file names, the service profiles do not work correctly.

Note

To create a connection profile for another language, use the version of the operating system and the CMAK wizard that are appropriate for the language.

Note

When you edit a connection profile created by using a previous version of CMAK, the CMAK wizard automatically upgrades the profile to Connection Manager 1.4. Any changes you made manually to the .inf file (using advanced customization techniques) will not be retained in the upgraded file. However, the CMAK wizard creates a backup of the old .inf file before creating the updated file.

Each connection profile should be specific to its target audience. For example, you might set up separate profiles if:

  • You want to make each service profile specific to a single operating system.

  • You specify phone books to support each of your distinct geographic areas or corporate organizations.

  • Different users require different connection methods (dial-up versus VPN).

  • You need to support VPN connections only for specific users.

  • The individual corporations or groups you support each want to use their own logos or other proprietary symbols or text.

  • The help desk or other support is not the same for everyone and you want to provide specific information to each user group.

  • You want to establish different administrative authorities for the groups you support.
To simplify administration of multiple connection profiles, you can merge existing profiles into a parent profile. See Merging Phone Books and Other Features from Existing Connection Profiles.

You must run the CMAK wizard again for each connection profile that you want to create, including each service name or file name you want to present to your users. For more information on service and file names, see Specifying Service and File Names.

It is easier to create additional profiles if you edit an existing profile and then change the service name and file name.

When you create a connection profile, the CMAK wizard copies all files that are incorporated in the profile into a \Program Files\CMAK\Profiles\ProfileType\ProfileFileName folder, where ProfileType is either Downlevel or Windows 7 and Windows Vista. When you edit existing profiles, the CMAK wizard always pulls the incorporated files from the ProfileFileName folder. To make changes to the incorporated files, edit the incorporated file in the ProfileFileName folder and then run the CMAK wizard again to update the service profile. Or, if you edit the file that is not in the ProfileFileName folder, start the CMAK wizard, add the updated file (by browsing to find it), and then finish running the wizard.
Connection Manager supports user installation of multiple connection profiles, running multiple instances of Connection Manager, and multiple user profiles for each connection profile. If a user installs more than one connection profile, each is installed to a separate folder. You can provide as many profiles to your users as necessary to support your service, but each must have a different service name and file name.

Additional references