iPhone Configuration Utility 3.3 for Mac OS X (iPCU) for iOS devices

Before creating a configuration profile, you should understand that each profile can contain one or multiple setting types. Apple calls these collections of settings payloads. You can create one profile with one or more, or all the payloads. Apple offers the free iPhone Configuration Utility (iPCU) that runs on Windows and Mac OS X to help configure and manage a variety of network settings for iOS products: the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Plus it’s how you setup 802.1X in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion since Apple now removed the settings in the OS.

Once you're finished, you can distribute it to users by email or upload to a website. In addition to wireless settings, iPCU can distribute security policies, VPN configuration, MS Exchange and email settings, and digital certificates. To email the configuration file using Outlook, click the Share button on the toolbar.

Once you define the settings in iPCU it generates a XML configuration profile that you can create for specific users, groups, or a single profile for all users. When sharing or exporting a profile, you’ll be prompted for a security option.

If you sign it, user
s can’t install it if it's altered. Plus, it can only be updated by another profile with the same identifier, and created by the same copy of iPCU. Signing and encrypting it secures the settings (including any passwords) and ties it to a specific device. You can also connect devices to the computer running iPCU and install the configuration profiles directly. When a user opens or downloads the configuration profile, they are prompted to start the painless automated configuration.

After you’ve shared or exported a profile, you'll see the .mobileconfig file. This is what you give the users. When they open or download it, the installation process will start.

iPhone Configuration Utility lets you easily create, maintain, encrypt, and install configuration profiles, track and install provisioning profiles and authorized applications, and capture device information including console logs. To support 802.1X for both iOS and Android, you might consider the XpressConnect solution from Cloud Path Networks. In addition to mobile devices, it has full support for distributing wired and wireless configurations to Windows, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu machines.

For Android devices, users will be prompted with a link to install the XpressConnect Android app, which is required for it to configure the settings. Configuration profiles are XML files that contain device security policies, VPN configuration information, Wi-Fi settings, APN settings, Exchange account settings, mail settings, and certificates that permit iPhone and iPod touch to work with your enterprise systems.

For PCs, it creates a wizard that you can also download and distribute via other mediums to users. Additionally, it can create MSI installers and supports group policy deployments for managed devices. End users then just have to simply run the wizard and it automatically configures the network and connects. iPhone Configuration Utility for Windows can be downloaded here: iPhone Configuration Utility for Windows.