Maths network access from home
What?
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) allows access to "internal" computing resources from "outside" across the internet, in a more transparent and general way than current methods of remote access (ssh, remote desktop, database etc.). Effectively the home/remote machine will acquire the same access as if it were on the internal Departmental network.
Please note: when you connect to the Faculty's VPN endpoint, all network traffic from your computer will be routed via the Faculty network.
Why?
User benefits include:
- easy to configure and use, giving a Maths Faculty network address which allows access to otherwise restricted resources (journals, file-servers etc.)
- secure access (once connected, all traffic is encrypted)
- supported for Windows, Mac and Linux/Unix as well as portable devices.
- once connected, you can access your home directory, store space and Windows role drives using the same procedure as for accessing them from a laptop on campus.
How?
UIS managed VPN
Instructions for setting up UIS VPN endpoints can be found here. Most of these instructions assume you are configuring the general UIS VPN, that said they will work just as well for Maths managed VPN if you:
- replace all mentions of vpn.uis.cam.ac.uk with mvpn.maths.cam.ac.uk (note the leading M), and
- if you use an Apple device, download the "Faculty of Mathematics" connection profile from the list of managed VPNs rather than the one referenced from the docs.
Please note that since this is a service provided by the UIS, technical issues with it should be reported to the UIS Helpdesk rather than to the Maths one. The only exception here is if you can connect to the general UIS VPN but are, using the same credentials, denied access to the Maths endpoint; if that happens do contact Maths Helpdesk.
Legacy OpenVPN endpoint
See the page specific to your device (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS) or our generic instructions. Please note that this service is now deprecated and has been scheduled to be shut down by the beginning of the 2024/2025 academic year.
Caveat - ejournals
It should not be necessary to use the VPN to access ejournals, and if you are a visitor and have not been granted off-campus access, doing so is in violation of the JISC Model Licence. If you are a current staff member or student and there is a journal you can only access on site or with the VPN, please report the problem using the "ejournals and eresources problem report form" below.
- ejournals and eresources FAQ (link to the JISC Model Licence is under "What are the restrictions on the use of content from e-resources?")
- Test whether your Raven password allows access to ejournals
- Access to ejournals - troubleshooting
- ejournals and eresources problem report form
Logging
We log your connections and disconnections from the VPN. While you are connected we also log your network traffic (this includes the IP addresses of the machines you connect to and the network port you connect on, but not details of the specific web pages you visit, nor anything about your email except that your computer connected to such-and-such a mail server at such-and-such a time). This is required by the UIS because otherwise, if there were an issue with a rogue VPN client, we would only know that a machine using the VPN server's IP address was causing trouble on the network, and we would have to shut the VPN down until the issue was resolved.
The logs are kept for 4 weeks, they are only accessible by Computer Officers, and we only look at them when there is a problem, we are trying to trace a bug or we suspect misuse.
