A .pcf file can be profile configuration file or a configuration file for setting the client parameters in a

virtual private network A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The be ...

. The file is in INI file format and contains information about a VPN connection which is necessary for the client software, such as the username, password, tunneling port,

DNS The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to ...

settings. The .pcf-files were originally used for

Cisco Systems VPN Client Cisco Systems VPN Client is a software application for connecting to virtual private networks based on Internet Key Exchange version 1. On July 29, 2011, Cisco announced the end of life of the product. No further product updates were released af ...

, but are now used also in other VPN systems to distribute configuration information to clients. For different versions of VPN client software there are different .PCF files (It is different from other organization). The .pcf extension is also used to indicate PreComp or a PreCompressed File. This file is basically a compressed file.

References

Cisco Systems Configuration files {{compu-network-stub