Special Notes on this Tutorial
To use this tutorial you must have a working install of Linux. The distribution this tutorial uses is slackware, but
the tools should be universal to all distributions of linux. This tutorial assumes that you have the correct
drivers for your wireless card working. It also assumes that you have the wireless tools installed on your computer.
And it assumes that you have the
VPN Client installed, and installed but not configured. The last thing this tutorial assumes is that you
have the root password to the computer.
Step One: VPN Client Configuration
Download the base configuration file from here by right-clicking
and selecting save link as, and then hit save. When the file is saved you are going to open up a terminal. At this
point you will open a terminal. When the terminal is loaded, type the command su - and supply the root
password when prompted. After doing this, you will move the pcf file you just downloaded to the correct directory with
the command mv /path/to/pennstate.pcf /etc/CiscoSystemsVPNClient/profiles. upon completion, the configuration
of the vpn client should be done.
Step Two: Connecting and Disconnecting from the Internet
First of all, after you get the vpnclient configured, you are going to want to tell your wireless card to connect
to the penn state network. When doing this the first thing you need to do is make sure that you are within range of
the signal. To do this you will use the command iwlist eth1 scan replacing eth1 with the name of your wireless
card, which is found by the command iwconfig. (both of these have be done as root; to become root type su -
and supply your password). If you find pennstate on this list of available access points (APs) then you can connect
to the wireless connection by typing the command: iwconfig eth1 essid pennstate. At this point you will need
to retrieve a new IP adress from the IP with the command dhcpcd -N eth1. This will have retrieved a new IP
address, and you will now need to authenticate yourself on the connection by typing vpnclient connect pennstate.
This command will prompt you for your Penn State username and password, supply them, and hit enter. You will then
be connected to the wireless network and can begin surfing. Do not close the vpnclient terminal window because it will
terminate your vpn session, and thus your authentication, and you will no longer be able to get on the network until
you run the program again.
Step Three: Test the Connection
Now that you are connected to the network you can begin surfing. If your connection should happen not to work,
report to (or call) the Penn State Altoona Help Desk for assistance.
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