PPTP
Technology & Computing abbreviation · Networking
| Stands for | Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol |
|---|---|
| Categories | Technology & Computing |
PPTP stands for Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol, a networking abbreviation.
An early VPN protocol from a Microsoft-led consortium that tunnels PPP over IP using GRE. It was easy to set up and built into Windows, but its MS-CHAPv2 authentication and encryption are now considered broken.
Example: Disable PPTP on the firewall; the security audit marked it as an obsolete VPN protocol.
Usage notes
Documented in RFC 2637 in 1999. Researchers demonstrated reliable cracking of MS-CHAPv2 in 2012, and Microsoft advised customers to move to other protocols. Apple removed PPTP support from iOS 10 and macOS Sierra in 2016. It survives mostly in legacy routers.
Related abbreviations
More networking abbreviations
- PAT – Port address translation
- PDU – Protocol data unit
- PoE – Power over Ethernet
- PoP – Point of presence
- POP3 – Post Office Protocol version 3
- PPPoE – Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet
- PSK – Pre-shared key
- PTR – Pointer (record)
- QoS – Quality of service
- QUIC – QUIC (originally Quick UDP Internet Connections)
- rDNS – Reverse DNS
- RDP – Remote Desktop Protocol