Tuesday, January 4, 2011

How to setup NUS SoC VPN on MAC OS

This is supported on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard), on Intel platforms, only.

Installation and setup:

1. Download and install the most current non-beta version of Tunnelblick from http://code.google.com/p/tunnelblick/wiki/DownloadsEntry?tm=2.
2. Run Tunnelblick once, select "OPENVPN configuration file". Exit the text editor that is automatically opened. Exit tunnelblick. The Tunnelblick application support folder will be created in your home directory.
3. Configure OpenVPN with SoC-VPN connection profiles:
3.1. Download the SoC-VPN configuration file: http://download.comp.nus.edu.sg/download/socvpn.conf or http://download.comp.nus.edu.sg/download/socvpn-staff.conf (for SoC staff only)
3.2. Download the certificate file: http://download.comp.nus.edu.sg/download/ca.txt
3.3. Save the downloaded files socvpn.conf and/or socvpn-staff.conf, and ca.txt, into ~/Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Configurations.

Connect to SoC-VPN:

1. Launch Tunnelblick. Tunnelblick icon appears in the menu bar (top right of your screen).
2. Click on "Connect 'socvpn'" or "Connect 'socvpn-staff'" to connect to the VPN.
3. Enter your NUSNET userid (e.g. nusstu\g0123456) and password when prompted.
4. When the VPN connection has been established, your browser will launch and load a webpage with the message "Welcome to SoC-VPN". You are now securely connected to SoC-VPN.

To disconnect from SoC-VPN:

1. Right-click on the OpenVPN icon in the menu bar.
2. Click on Disconnect.
3. You're now disconnected from SoC-VPN.


Note that this page is following https://docs.comp.nus.edu.sg/node/2454

How to connect to Windows Remote Desktop on the MAC OS

1. there is an official Windows Remote Desktop client for MAC OS:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/remotedesktopconnectionclient.html



Some notes:
1. Microsoft also provides many good applications for MAC, some of which are free:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads
2. if you are a NUS SoC student and you may also want to use the SoC VPN to connect to the PC in your office: please refer to http://wangpidong.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-setup-nus-soc-vpn-on-mac-os.html