Mac OSX andCisco VPN-client

General information on VPN, VPN clients and where to find these you can find on this page.

1. Key Figures

To set up the client you will need group information and your own username. Group information is:

• User: alle
• Password: passord

In addition you also need to know which address you should connect the client to. The address is:

• vpn.ntnu.no

When you have entered this information, you may log on with your own username and password. Information on how to do this is included further down on this page

This article will give two different ways of configuring the VPN-client, chose either 2a (easy) or 2b (more advanced).

2a. Setting up the VPN-client graphically

You have to start by getting the VPN-client. This you can do by logging in with username vpn and password klient at this page.

After logging in, you choose the directory called mac-os-x. Here you will find a couple various VPN-clients, choose the one with the newest date. This is an installation program and will then be downloaded to your machine.

After a while the download will finish and a windows with three icons will pop up, choose the icon Cisco VPN Client.mpkg and the installation will start.

At some point during the installation you will be asked for a password, this is your computer’s administrator-password.

After this, the installation program will ask you whether or not you have an OS X-version newer than 10.1.5. If you do, click Continue.

After accepting the license agreement you will be asked to choose disk. Choose Macintosh HD and click Continue.

Choose Update to install the VPN-client. After the installation is complete you probably will have to restart the machine. Do this :)

Configuring the client

After all this is done, the VPN-client must be configured as to be able to connect to the NTNU network. To do this, start the program called VPN Client, which you will find in your Programs directory.

Tip: After you have started the program you will see a new icon in the Dock. To ensure that it will not go away when you close the VPN-client; press and hold ctrl, click on the icon and choose Keep in Dock.

Your window should look something like this when you start the VPN-client.

Choose "New" and a form will appear. Fill in the fields as shown below.

• Connection entry: NTNU
• Host: vpn.ntnu.no
• Name: alle
• Password: passord
• Confirm password: passord

Double-check that your form looks like the one below and click "Save".

This should be the end of it. Choose Connect or double-click on NTNU to connect.

2b. Setting up the VPN-client with a terminal

First of all, you need to download and install the VPN-client.

After this you have to unpack the VPN-client. We will be using a terminal for this, so open one and you should get a screen looking something like this:

Find the directory where you saved the VPN-file earlier by using cd name_of_directory, if you chose to save it on the desktop, the command would be: cd ~/Desktop. To unpack the client, you use the command tar -xzf vpnclient-xxx.tar.gz. Exchange xxx with the version of your downloaded client. If you cannot remember this, you can use the command ls which gives you the directory's contents.

The next step is then to install the client. First make sure you are in the directory that was created when you unpacked the files earlier, use cd vpnclient. To install these files, you need to have root-access to the machine, so include a sudo when starting the installation: sudo ./vpn_install. You will be asked as to where you want the files, and the default location /usr/local/bin should be fine unless you have special preferences. Next you will be asked if you want to start the module each time the machine starts. This does not mean that the client will start, just that the module will be loaded. If you choose to answer no, you will have to write an extra line each time you want to use the client.

If you chose no earlier, you have to load the module manually with this command: sudo kmodload /System/Library/Extensions/CiscoVPN.kext/contents/MacOS/CiscoVPN. And you must do this every time you want to use the client.

The installation is now complete.

3. Configuring the connection

To use this newly installed VPN-client for connection to NTNU, you need to configure its profiles. Go to the profile-directory cd /etc/CiscoSystemsVPNClient/Profiles. Copy the existing file to a new one (this one is just an example) by using: cp sample.pcf ntnu.pcf. Then you are set to edit the file ntnu.pcf so you can connect to NTNU. Open the file in a text-editor like pico: pico ntnu.pcf . And change the existing values so you get a list like this for Description, Host, Group Name and Username.

• Description=ntnu
• Host vpn.ntnu.no
• Group Name=alle
• Username=yourusername

4. Connecting

To start the VPN-client use the command /usr/local/bin/vpnclient connect ntnu (make sure the module is loaded prior to this). You will get a group password-prompt which is passord, and username the one you use at NTNU. Then you will get another password-prompt which is requesting the one you use with your username at NTNU. You should now have terminal looking something like this:

After connecting you should have access to the same resources like your home directory from your computer as you do when you log onto one of the computers at campus.