I'm trying to connect an Ubuntu laptop (9.10) with some kind of Cisco VPN device; I don't know what's on the other end, and I'm not likely to find out exactly what. I know my company allows VPN from Linux clients because they provide one that I cannot get to install (it fails to compile). I've had the most luck with the network-manager-vpnc package, however I can't figure out what's failing. When I try to connect, I get this message from libnotify:

The VPN connection 'XXX' failed.

which is not very helpful. I've scoured the system logs and all I can find is this:

Dec 27 12:57:45 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <info>  Starting VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc'...
Dec 27 12:57:45 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <info>  VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc' started (org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc), PID 2672
Dec 27 12:57:45 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <info>  VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc' just appeared, activating connections
Dec 27 12:58:00 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <info>  VPN plugin state changed: 3
Dec 27 12:58:00 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <info>  VPN connection 'AmericasEast' (Connect) reply received.
Dec 27 12:58:00 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager:    SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices added (path: /sys/devices/virtual/net/tun0, iface: tun0)
Dec 27 12:58:00 jcasadon-lap kernel: [ 6144.529002] tun0: Disabled Privacy Extensions
Dec 27 12:58:00 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager:    SCPlugin-Ifupdown: device added (path: /sys/devices/virtual/net/tun0, iface: tun0): no ifupdown configuration found.
Dec 27 12:58:15 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager:    SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices removed (path: /sys/devices/virtual/net/tun0, iface: tun0)
Dec 27 12:58:15 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <info>  VPN plugin failed: 1
Dec 27 12:58:15 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <info>  VPN plugin state changed: 6
Dec 27 12:58:15 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <info>  VPN plugin state change reason: 0
Dec 27 12:58:15 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <WARN>  connection_state_changed(): Could not process the request because no VPN connection was active.
Dec 27 12:58:15 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): writing resolv.conf to /sbin/resolvconf
Dec 27 12:58:15 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <info>  Policy set 'Northbound Train' (wlan0) as default for routing and DNS.
Dec 27 12:58:27 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <debug> [1261936707.002971] ensure_killed(): waiting for vpn service pid 2672 to exit
Dec 27 12:58:27 jcasadon-lap NetworkManager: <debug> [1261936707.003175] ensure_killed(): vpn service pid 2672 cleaned up

I have no idea where to go from here. Tomorrow I'll ask the IT/IS guys if there's anything they can tell me from their end, but I don't know if they'll be able to tell me anything. Any ideas? Thanks!