TU Eindhoven vpn.tue.nl, vpn2.tue.nl VPN User guide

Using TU Eindhoven's VPN with Ubuntu 14.04

TU Eindhoven offers two servers for Virtual Private Networking (VPN):

1. vpn.tue.nl

2. vpn2.tue.nl

They can be used on Linux computers.

Using vpn.tue.nl is straightforward, but it only supports insecure (unencrypted) traffic.

Using vpn2.tue.nl offers secure connections, but it is a bit more work to set up.

This document describes how to do it using Ubuntu 14.04 with its default GUI environment (Unity).

Configuring VPN networks on Ubuntu

To configure a VPN connection, on your Ubuntu desktop, click on the networking icon in the top right hand menu (the icon varies shape depending on the state of your networking connections).

A menu will open. In that menu, Enable Networking or Enable Wi-Fi can be enabled or disabled by clicking on them. Of course, Enable Networking must be enabled, and you need a working Internet connection (by cable or Wi-Fi) before you can use a VPN connection.

Now, select VPN Connections, then select Configure VPN...:

The Network Connections dialog will pop up. To add a new VPN connection, click Add:

You will be asked to choose a connection type.

By default, only one type is available:

This type can be used to connect to vpn.tue.nl, but not to connect to vpn2.tue.nl.

vpn.tue.nl

vpn.tue.nl supports insecure (unencrypted) connections only. This means others with access to the network you're using can eavesdrop on what you're doing, unless you have encryption in your application (e.g. by using HTTPS, SSH, or Remote Desktop with encryption) or in the underlying network (e.g. a tue-wpa2 or eduroam Wi-Fi connection).

After clicking Configure VPN …, then Add, then Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) (see above), the following dialog appears:

Click Create …. The following dialog appears:

Fill in a connection name of your preference. As the gateway, fill in vpn.tue.nl.

As the user, your TUE domain account. As the NT Domain, fill in tue.

For safety, select Always Ask for the password.

Then, click Save ….

You now have a new item in the VPN Connections submenu. Select it to enable it:

You are asked to log in:

If your credentials are correct, a connection will be established:

This connection will be used by default. Its low-level name is ppp0:

vpn2.tue.nl

vpn2.tue.nl creates secure (encrypted) connections.

This is the network for users with a valid TUE domain account.

There are several VPN technologies; some of them are not installed on Ubuntu by default.

The support we need to install is for Cisco AnyConnect Compatible VPN (openconnect).

To do this, install the Ubuntu package named network-manager-openconnect (with its dependencies).

This can be done by opening a terminal, typing

sudo apt-get -y install network-manager-openconnect and supplying your password, or by using the Ubuntu Software Center.

Once this is done, you can create a VPN connection of the right type.

O do this,n the main networking menu, select VPN Connections, then select Configure VPN...:

The Network Connections dialog will pop up. To add a new VPN connection, click Add:

You will be asked to choose a connection type.

Select Cisco AnyConnect Compatible VPN (openconnect):

Click Create …. The following dialog appears:

Fill in a connection name of your preference. As the gateway, fill in vpn2.tue.nl.

As the user, your TUE domain account. You don't need to specify a certificate yet.

Click Save ….

You now have a new item in the VPN Connections submenu. Select it to enable it:

The dialog below will pop up. Click on the icon at the top right. The dialog below will pop up:

Click OK. The previous dialog will pop up, but with more options:

Next to GROUP, select the type of traffic you want to go through the VP connection.

Selected here is Tunnel all traffic (which doesn't actually tunnel all traffic - see below).

As username and password, specify your TUE domain username and password.

It is safer to leave Save passwords unchecked. Then, click Login.

If your credentials are correct, the connection will be established:

Its low-level name is vpn0:

As seen from the above screenshot, some network traffic may still use a different connection.

In this example, the laptop being used has a wired connection within the W&I department (domain

*.win.tue.nl, IP range 131.155.68.0/255.255.252.0), and traffic between it and hosts within that range directly use that connection, while traffic between the laptop and a host outside of that IP range (within and outside TU Eindhoven) will use the VPN connection.

Instead of using GUI configuration, you can connect and disconnect using the openconnect command line application, which is installed by installing Ubuntu's openconnect package. A script to automate connecting to vpn2.win.tue.nl using this command can be found at http://www.win.tue.nl/~rp/bin/vpn2

To use it:

1. download it

2. make it executable

3. inspect its contents (in case it has been tampered with)

4. run it from the command line: vpn2 start

# to create a VPN connection to vpn2.tue.nl

5. vpn2 stop # to break it if it exists

6. vpn2 restart # to stop, then start

For some reason, it creates a networking interface called tun0 rather than vpn0.

Other than that, the effect appears to be the same as by using the GUI.