Ubuntu VPN

From The University of Akron Support Center Wiki

Connecting to the University of Akron VPN system is simple an easy with these instructions. Ubuntu 7.04 uses a tool called NetworkManager to handle your network connections. This utility is available to previous versions of Ubuntu, but is not installed by default. For advanced instructions please see the end of the document.

For versions of Ubuntu before 7.04 follow this guide to install NetworkManager. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/NetworkManager You should now have NetworkManager installed. The next step is to install two packages: vpnc and network­manager­vpnc. Click System ­> Administration ­> Synaptic Package Manager as shown i this image:

To launch Synaptic you will need to enter your system password. Once you launch Synaptic, yo will need to search for 'vpnc.' Three packages will show up as shown in the following image:

Click the box to the left of network­manager­vpnc and select “Mark for Installation.” This will prompt you to also select the vpnc package. Click the 'Mark' button to proceed. After this you will nee to click the large Apply button and the packages will be installed. To complete the installation you should log out of the system and log back in*. A complete restart is not required. Once you are logged back in the modules you installed will be active in the NetworkManager. You will need to click the NetworkManager icon in the top right of the desktop. The NetworkManager may have one of two icon displayed:

Click the icon and go down to the menu option for VPN Connections. Then click “Configure VPN.” A dialog will appear that will have a button labeled “Add.” Click this to bring up the VPN wizard. Follow the images in this document on how to configure the VPN connection.

In the first page of the dialog, click Forward. You will be presented with a drop down list. 

Choose Compatible Cisco VPN Client (vpnc). Then click forward.

Next you will see a larger dialog as shown in the bottom left image. Fill in for the Connection Name UANET VPN. For the Gateway type: vpn.uakron.edu. For the group name you will need to ente Zipnet. The 'Z' is capital, and the rest is lower case.

This is important. There is a tab in the dialog that says 'Optional' that you will need to click. Within the Optional tab there is a check­box for 'Override user name' that you will need to click. In the text box that becomes available you will need to enter your UANET ID, which is the same username that you use to log into the zipnet. We are now done with the setup! Click the forward button and then the Finish button that appears on the summary dialog. You should now be able to connect to the VPN. Click the NetworkManager icon as before, and go down to VPN Connections.

If the UANET VPN is now showing up under VPN Connections, then you will need to log out and back in again. This is a one time thing. However, it may not be needed. Once you click UANET VPN, a small dialog will pop up asking for two passwords. The dialog looks like this:

You will need to use two passwords to log into the system. The first password is your UANET password. The second password is the group password. The group password is 'zippy' without the quotes. All lower case. After entering those, click OK and you should connect. If you see a small padlock next to your NetworkManager icon, then you are now connected to the University of Akron VPN.

This document was written from the perspective of an Ubuntu Linux user. Many of the things here will work fine in other Debian based systems and should also work fine in other Linux distributions, however the other distributions may require different steps for installing packages. • Advanced Instructions:

   Enable all standard repositories and from a terminal and type the following:
   sudo apt­get install network­manager­vpnc
   Instead of logging out you can just do the following:
   sudo killall NetworkManager
   sudo NetworkManager
   The logout / kill is required to restart the dbus system. Both have the same effect.

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9/13/07, Tim Reynolds