VPNUniversity of Florida VPN Service
Welcome to the University of Florida Virtual Private Network Service Site. The UF VPN Service is designed to allow University Faculty, Staff, and Students to securely "tunnel" into campus over commodity networks, such as the Internet, and access services as if they were on campus. It is also ideal for use over campus wireless networks as well. The only two things you need to begin are the software, which is available on this site, and a valid gatorlink account. For more information about gatorlink see the gatorlink web site.
If you would like to keep up to date on the latest developments to the VPN service, please subscribe the vpn listserv vpn-l by sending an email to listserv@lists.ufl.edu with the body "Subscribe vpn-l" (that's an L not a 1). Support can also be obtained by calling the UF Helpdesk at 392-HELP.
VPN News
- 09/10/2009: A new round of clients has been posted to the download section. These include the latest MacOS-X client which works with OS 10.6 and a beta Windows client which should work much better with Windows 7 and Vista using the latest service pack. Remember that these are still 32bit only clients. Due to licensing changes from our VPN equipment vendor, we will be able to offer native 64 bit clients later this fall. Stay tuned for more information.
- 11/05/2008: A new round of clients has been posted to the download section. These include the latest Windows client which works a bit better with Vista (still only supports 32bit), and a new Linux client which supports Fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.04.
- 10/29/2008: A new VPN system has been put into production. For more information please see this document .
- 2/7/2008: We have posted a new version of the Mac OS-X client which "officially" supports OS 10.5. The older VPN client worked with 10.5, but wasn't offically supported by Cisco. This new client is now the recommended client for all 10.4 and 10.5 users.
- 12/10/2007: We have posted a new linux client. This client supports the most recent distributions of Fedora, Ubuntu, and Suse. It also supports 64 bit operating systems as well.
- 9/11/2007: We have posted new versions of the Windows and MAC clients. The windows client now officially supports Vista however there are some known issues. Please see the installation guide for more information.
- 3/26/2007: We have posted a patched version of the linux client that should complie on recent 2.6.19/20 kernels, including Fedora Core 6 and the latest Ubuntu releases.
- 11/20/2006: CNS, in support of the Windows Vista effort on campus, has posted a BETA native Vista VPN client to the software page. Because this client is not formally supported by Cisco, neither CNS nor the Helpdesk will provide support for it until it is formally released and supported by Cisco.
- 6/25/2006: A new Windows client (4.8.01) has been posted which addresses a client security issue. All supported Gatorlink VPN releases prior to 4.8.01 are affected by this problem and have been removed from the site. All windows users are encouraged to upgrade. The security issue involves local privilege escalation and requires interactive access to the OS to exploit. Only the Windows client running on NT,2000,XP or above is affected by this issue. Windows 9x is not affected. Further details can be found here.
- 4/6/2006: The issue with NAT-T and the built in Mac OSX client has been resolved as of OSX release 10.4.6. Users not able to connect to the VPN concentrator using the OSX client while behind a NAT router should upgrade.
- 3/20/2006: New VPN clients for Windows, Linux, and MacOSX have been posted to the clients section. Highlights include support for 2.6.15 kernel (Fedora Core 4), and support for Intel based MacOSX. Also note the newest client for Windows is only supported by UF on the 2000 and XP platforms. While the client will run on 98 and ME, there is a bug which prevents it from working properly in our environment. Cisco has ended support for Windows NT as of the 4.6.11 client, so Windows NT users should not upgrade.
- 3/19/2006: There is a problem with the MacOSX built in client (not the Cisco one) on MacOSX 10.4.5 with Security update 2006-1 applied. It will only work when behind a NAT based router. This problem has been reported to Apple.
- 11/4/2005: We have added additional instructions specific to the AnthaVPN client for Palm/PocketPC. This can be found under the "Installation and Operation Instructions" section of the website.
- 10/31/2005: After testing, we have discovered that the Mac OSX L2TP/IPsec client (which is built in to the operating system) implements a non-standard version of NAT-T which isn't compatible with standard NAT-T implementations such as the one we use. As a result, unless NAT-T is disabled, the Mac L2TP/IPsec client will be unable to connect to the campus VPN concentrator when behind NAT/PAT equipment such as home cable/dsl router/firewalls. More information can be found here . The Cisco Mac OSX VPN client does not have this problem and can be used behind NAT/PAT equipment.
- 9/1/2005: We are now shipping new Cisco clients for all platforms. This is a major upgrade from the previously supported clients, epecially for windows. We also announce support for native L2TP/IPsec clients for Windows, Mac OSX 10.3 and above as well as PocketPC. The installation guide has been updated for the new clients and also includes information on using native clients. Troubleshooting and FAQ are currently being updated.
- 5/26/2005: We have been getting a lot of questions on the OS 10.x client for the Mac. As many of you know the client broke when going from 10.3 to 10.4. Our vendor has released a compatible client with 10.4 but it still has several issues and doesn't work for many configurations of 10.4, and also has some issues with 10.3. For that reason we have not released it to the general public yet. If you have 10.4 and need this client, please contact the helpdesk. They have the information you need to get the client. Also note that we released this client to the vpn-l listserv on 5/17, where we normally post notices of new clients before they go up on the main page. If you are interested in testing these clients, please subscribe to the vpn-l listserv.
- 6/10/2004: A complete line of the new Cisco 4.x VPN clients has been released for public BETA trials. These clients are not yet supported by the UF Helpdesk, and new documentation and FAQs on the 4.x software is not yet available but will be soon. Please submit feedback or bug reports to the VPN listserv at vpn-l@lists.ufl.edu. These clients support Linux kernel 2.6 and Mac OS 10.3, and the Windows and Macintosh clients now have a common look and feel (new to the Windows client). A complete list of changes will be included in the forthcoming documentation.
- 7/1/2003: The vpn client software for all platforms has been updated. Please upgrade to these versions if you have problems with your existing client. Release 3.7.3 of the linux client now supports Redhat 9 and Suse 8.2.
- 10/6/2002: Release 3.7 of the VPN client for Linux, MacOS-X, and Solaris has been posted. This includes a GUI and MacOS 10.2 support for the MacOS-X client. The troubleshooting and installation guides have also been updated.
- 9/13/2002: Release 3.6.1 of the VPN client for all platforms has been posted on the clients section. This fixes some security bugs and adds support for some new features. See the FAQ for more information on the new features. We have also added a new troubleshooting guide and a revised FAQ and Installation Guide.
- 7/24/2002: A new version of the Windows VPN client (3.5.2C) has been posted on the clients section. This fixes a few minor bugs including traceroute.
- 7/15/2002: The UF VPN service is now officially production.
- 6/30/2002: The RADIUS server problems have been corrected and the VPN service is up.
- 6/30/2002: The RADIUS server which performs VPN authentication is currently down. All VPN connections will fail (peer has terminated connection). Open Systems is working on restoring the RADIUS server.
- 6/12/2002: The "new" VPN system has been turned over for UF beta use.
- 5/28/2002: The "new" VPN equipment is now in internal testing for a few weeks.
- 5/24/2002: The new VPN website has been completed. This site contains information on the new vpn hardware and software.