ITNG:Student VPN

From SSEC

(Redirected from ITNG:SSL-Explorer)
Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

Introduction

The Student VPN is a web based system that allows students within the school to securely access the school's internal IT resources. It works by downloading a Java based agent to your computer and creating an SSL tunnel between your computer and the school's gateway. Requests for the available resources are then re-directed over this tunnel in a secure manner.

Summary of Available Resources

Requirements

In order to use the Student VPN your computer must meet the following requirements;

  • Have a Java runtime environment installed and up-to-date
Linux users can use openjdk and the icedtea plug-in.
Alternatively use the version of Java from Sun.
  • Have a compatible browser: Internet Explorer 5, IE6, IE7, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari browsers among many more
  • Be running a supported OS: Officially supported on Microsoft Windows XP/2000/2003/Vista/Windows 7, Apple Mac OS X Tiger (or later) and Red Hat 8.0 / Fedora Core 4 or later (other Linux distributions are unofficially supported)

Using The Student VPN

Logging In

To access the Student VPN point your web browser at https://vpn.sse.reading.ac.uk and then login using your ITS username and password.

Once you have logged in the Agent will start (You may be asked to confirm that you trust the Agent, say yes) and you'll be redirected to the main page.

In the main area you will see a number of resources which have been marked as "Favourites".

Accessing a Resource

To launch a resource, simply click on the icon. If required the system will start the Agent

The Student VPN Agent

For resources such as remote desktop to the Student Terminal Server, The Student VPN will need to launch the Agent. The Agent is a Java application that sits in the task bar and creates/manages the SSL tunnels between your computer and the server; it also maps any network places as drive letters on your computer.

You can also right-click on the Agent to access your resources.

If the Agent is running you can close the browser

Detailed Look at the Available Resources

The Student Terminal Server

For a detailed explanation of the Student Terminal Server, please see the Student Terminal Server wiki page.

There are two main options for connecting to the Student Terminal Server;

  • Student Terminal Server
  • Student Terminal Server (Java)

These two option should suffice for most people but if you want more functionality then you can click on the Resources tab, followed by the My Applications tab. This will give you three more options which have tweaks to enable OS based extras.


Student Terminal Server

This option tries to connect to the terminal server via the best option for your OS.

  • For Windows users this will mean using the built-in Remote Desktop Client.
  • For Linux users this will mean using RDesktop (which you must install first!).
  • For Mac users this means using Remote Desktop Connection Client v2+ (which you must install first!).

Student Terminal Server (Java)

If the Student Terminal Server connection does not work for you then you can fall back on this Java based version which is OS agnostic but does not offer the same performance/features.

Access to the ITS N Drive

Clicking on the Icon will allow you to download/upload files to your ITS file space through a web interface. If you are running Windows then when the Agent runs it will map the N Drive as the letter N on you computer (Not currently working for Windows 7 64 bit).

Access to Saturn (Linux Terminal Server)

There are two ways to Access Saturn;

  • SSH access to Saturn
  • GUI access to Saturn

SSH access to Saturn

  • For Windows users: The Application "SSH to Saturn (Windows)" will run the agent and start a PuTTY based ssh session with Saturn.
  • For Linux users: The Tunnel "SSH Tunnel to Saturn" will launch the agent and create a tunnel from 127.0.0.1:8022 to Saturn
Open a terminal and connect using 
ssh {ITS username}@127.0.0.1:8022
  • For MAC OS users: The Tunnel "SSH Tunnel to Saturn" will launch the agent and create a tunnel from 127.0.0.1:8022 to Saturn
Open a terminal and connect using 
ssh {ITS username}@127.0.0.1 -p 8022

GUI access to Saturn

  • For Windows users: The Application "GUI Logon to Saturn (Windows)" will launch the NX Client and then connect to the NX server on Saturn<
  1. Launch the Tunnel "SSH Tunnel to Saturn" which will create a tunnel from 127.0.0.1:8022 to Saturn
  2. Run the NX Client you installed
When Configuring the Session, give the host as 127.0.0.1 and use port 8022.
When Configuring the Desktop, Select "Unix" and "GNOME"
  1. Launch the Tunnel "SSH Tunnel to Saturn" which will create a tunnel from 127.0.0.1:8022 to Saturn
  2. Run the NX Client you installed
When Configuring the Session, give the host as 127.0.0.1 and use port 8022.
When Configuring the Desktop, Select "Unix" and "GNOME"

Trouble Shooting

Please try the following before contacting ITNG

General Problems

  1. First make sure your Java is up-to-date
  2. Delete the Agent folder: %USERPROFILE%\.sslvpn e.g c:\users\Administrator\.sslvpn

Synchronisation Failed

  • Could be a corrupt copy of the agent

From time to time the vpn can have trouble synchronising the Agent files. To Fix this take the following actions;

  1. First make sure your Java is up-to-date
  2. Logout of the website
  3. Locate the Agent folder: %USERPROFILE%\.sslvpn e.g c:\users\Administrator\.sslvpn
  4. Delete the Folder
  5. Log back into the website

This should fix most synchronisation problems.

Agent Fails to Load

If you have a firewall - Check it allows connections to localhost (127.0.0.1)

  1. Locate the Log file (agent.log) will be located in %USERPROFILE%\.sslvpn\applications\sslexplorer-agent\
  2. Mail File to si-help@reading.ac.uk with a description of the problem you are having
Retrieved from "http://wiki.sse.rdg.ac.uk/wiki/ITNG:Student_VPN"
Personal tools