This is a brief HOWTO designed to get you exactly what you need to connect to the VPN network here on UCLA campus.
VPN, you say?!?
Yes, VPN. Officially known as a Virtual Private Network, by connecting
to a VPN, one can create a tunneled connection through a public and
insecure network. The entry point to the VPN network at UCLA begins
at the Cisco 3030 VPN concentrator located at vpn.ucla.edu. The package
vpnc was made specifically for connecting to these types
of concentrators. This tutorial will show you how to connect to the VPN
in three easy steps. This tutorial also assumes the user is using the
UCLALUG's recommended distro, Ubuntu. Consult your distro documentation
on how to do the following commands on your distribution.
Three easy steps?!? Really?
Yes, three steps.Lets Begin!
I. Install the vpnc package.
$ apt-get install vpnc
This will ask for you to log into BOL to download the file.
III. Convert your PCF fileI suggest using the script
pcf2vpnc. Conversion appears to be more than just simply
copy-pasta, so I heavily recommend using this script to generate the
configuration file. $ pcf2vpnc UCLAVPN.pcf > vpnc.conf
This saves the converted vpnc configuration file to
vpnc.conf. You will have to edit this file by including your username
and password where the file denotes <your username>
and <your password>. As a sidenote, I would recommend
writing only your username into the configuration file and not your BOL
password, in the unlikely case someone can read that file. As a final
step you need to move the configuration file to where vpnc
can read it. The following command moves it to where VPNC
(8) suggests /etc/vpnc/default.conf
$ mv vpnc.conf /etc/vpnc/default.conf
and...
You're done!
After connecting to the wireless, or gaining access to
the internet type in vpnc and supply your BOL password.
Congratulations, your datumz are secure.