VPN

Connecting to the Internet through Virginia Tech's Virtual Private Network (VPN) is the only officially advertised and supported method of accessing certain resources such as VT Network Software from off-campus. Alternatively, you can use SSH tunnels or proxies to obtain a Virginia Tech IP address.

Important: You must first create a Remote Access ID to be able to log into the VPN. This is different from your normal VT PID password. This is the Network Account information on your Accounts page.

New VPN Instructions

As of September 2014, the software that runs the VPN has changed and no new instructions have been written yet. For now, you can follow these instructions for Arch Linux.

Old PPTP VPN Instructions

pptpclient

Tested on Arch Linux with pptpclient 1.7.2 (updated on 2011-08-28).

• Ensure that you have both ppp and pptpclient installed. Otherwise, you may receive strange errors or otherwise be unable to connect.
• Create the file /etc/ppp/peers/VirginiaTech with the following:

remotename VirginiaTech
pty "pptp pptp.cns.vt.edu --nolaunchpppd"
name username
file /etc/ppp/options.pptp
require-mppe-128
ipparam VirginiaTech

Make sure to replace username with your username.

• Edit the file /etc/ppp/chap-secrets and add the following line to the bottom, replacing username with your username and password with your password:

username VirginiaTech password *

• To connect, use the pon script:

sudo pon VirginiaTech

• To disconnect, use poff:

sudo poff VirginiaTech

Network Manager

Tested on Fedora 15 (updated on 2011-08-28). Tested on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (2012-05-22)

• Install the networkmanager-pptp package. (Ubuntu users can skip this step.)
• Right click on the Network Manager applet and select Edit Connections...
• Select the VPN tab and click Add.
• Select Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) and click Create...
• Enter Virginia Tech VPN for the connection name.
• Enter pptp.cns.vt.edu for the gateway.
• Enter your username and remote access passphrase (in the password field), leaving NT domain blank.
• Click Save...
• Left click on the Network Manager applet, and select Virginia Tech VPN under VPN Connections.