Services

VPN

To access VSE computing resources such as Zeus, Oracle, MySQL and Helios from off campus you need to install and use the VSE VPN. The VPN software you need is called OpenVPN.

Install OpenVPN on Windows

  1. Download both of the following required files.

    OpenVPN installer: http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/downloads.html
    VPN configuration file: windows_vpn_files.zip
  2. Run the OpenVPN installer and install the software. You may be warned about incompatibilities, just choose continue.
  3. Extract the files from windows_vpn_files.zip and put them into the config folder under OpenVPN.
    The default location is C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config.

    The files are: ite.gmu.edu.crt and vpn.ite.gmu.edu.ovpn

Connect to VPN on Windows

  1. If you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7 you need to run the OpenVPN GUI as administrator. It is not enough to be an administrator. To do this you need to right click on the OpenVPN GUI icon and choose "Run as Administrator". Here is a walkthrough of this step: Vista and Windows 7 walkthrough
  2. If you have not already done so from the previous step, run the OpenVPN GUI program.
  3. Click on the OpenVPN icon in your system tray on the bottom right of your screen and choose "Connect".
  • A common problem users experience is the VPN appears to connect okay but things don't work as expected. If this happens to you and you are running Windows 7 or Windows Vista make sure you followed step 1.

Install OpenVPN on Mac OSX

  1. Download both of the following required files.

    Tunnelblick (an OpenVPN client): http://code.google.com/p/tunnelblick/wiki/DownloadsEntry?tm=2
    VPN configuration file: vpn_files.zip
  2. Install Tunnelblick
  3. Extract the two files from the vpn_files.zip and place them in:

    ~/Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Configurations

    which, for user "angelolaub", would be located at

    /Users/angelolaub/Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Configurations

    The files are: ite.gmu.edu.crt and vpn.ite.gmu.edu.conf

Connect to VPN on Mac OSX

  1. Click on the Tunnelblick icon it the top right of your screen and select "Connect vpn.ite.gmu.edu"
  2. Enter your GMU username and password. It is the same as your GMU email.
  3. If it is successful the icon will show a light in the tunnel.

Install and Connect to VPN on Linux

  1. Install an OpenVPN client for your flavor of Linux.
  2. Download and extract the configuration files: vpn_files.zip

In the meantime the easiest way to setup OpenVPN on Linux is to install the command line executable. You should check to see if it is available via your distributions package manager.

Once you have OpenVPN installed you will need these files vpn_files.zip.

example of how to launch the tunnel: sudo openvpn vpn.ite.gmu.edu.conf

When it prompts for a username and password use your GMU email username and password.

  1. Click on the Tunnelblick icon it the top right of your screen and select "Connect vpn.ite.gmu.edu"
  2. Enter your GMU username and password. It is the same as your GMU email.
  3. If it is successful the icon will show a light in the tunnel.