Using the VPN
What is the VPN?
VPN is an acronym for Virtual Private Network and is a secure and authenticated mechanism for allowing computers that are located outside the School access to our internal networks. When you connect to the VPN an encrypted tunnel is created between the users machine and the School's internal networks.
Why use the VPN?
Members of the School who have third-party ISP dial-up or broadband accounts can use the VPN to make their machine appear to be logically connected to the School's network, similar to the way that SSH tunnels work. In fact the VPN can replace the use of SSH for most activities.
Using the VPN allows access to resources such as web pages that are only accessible within the School or SMB shares from Windows servers.
How do I use the VPN?
In order to use the VPN you need to configure your machine for the School's VPN, information is available for configuring Windows 7, Windows, Linux and OS/X machines.
The VPN address for the School is vpn.cs.bham.ac.uk