After much effort, we now have a packaged version of the Juniper VPN Linux client available! We also have a helper script which allows you to easily connect from your Linux desktop. It’s available for rpm and deb based distros, and as a tgz if you’re using a different package manager.
The instructions have been published here: http://www.bris.ac.uk/it-services/advice/homeusers/uobonly/uobvpn/howto/linux/
The old PPTP based VPN will be switched off on the 30th June 2014 and anyone using linux to VPN in will need to migrate to the new service before then.
-Paul
Thanks, this seems to work well for me on Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit.
Can we assume that all network traffic is going via the VPN? It appears that at least all traffic from my web browser and e-mail client are going via the VPN by looking at my open TCP connections, but I am not sure about other applications.
Hi James,
Yes – you can assume all network traffic is routed via the VPN (and therefore subject to all the usual university acceptable use policies). “ip ro show” should show you your routing table if you want to confirm that for yourself.
Many thanks!
It appears that the client segfaults when you try to connect if /etc/resolv.conf doesn’t exist.
Some distros (notably Ubuntu) don’t use /etc/resolv.conf directly, instead wrapping it with the resolvconf utility.
We’re investigating adding a check for missing /etc/resolv.conf to the uobnet.sh script so that it fails in a more gracefull/helpful manner – but you may find that “touch /etc/resolv.conf” is enough to make it play nice.
Please let us know if you hit this wrinkle, and tell us how well the workaround works 🙂