Ubuntu-scrimination and the VPainiNtheass…C

Well for my first post I’ve actually got something that has been bugging me for a couple of weeks while I’ve been on campus sitting through lectures. Lately, I haven’t been able to connect to AIM while on my Ubuntu Feisty laptop and had decided a while back that it had something to do with me not being able to connect to the local VPN.

I am not entirely sure why I came to that conclusion, but I believe it was something that stuck in my mind from years ago when I was first attempting to use my laptop on campus — however, this isn’t the point, it’s the fact that after connecting to the vpn i am now able to use pidgin and alleviate some boredom.

What I wound up doing, was googling “ubuntu gutsy cisco vpn 4.8 patch” and there i found a website: Arun’s Blog. Therein, he breaks things down into two sections covering two different vpn clients, the default cisco client which can be downloaded from AU Install for Auburn University students (important address, because it comes with two configuration files that you can not live without).

For me, i’m going to have you steal the config files from the download and then use vpnc seperately to connect. Once you download the file untar it using archive manager. Now, use apt-get to install vpnc [sudo apt-get install vpnc resolvconf] and allow that to finish. Then jump back to the original folder created from untar’ing the cisco vpn client and open up your config files (in my case AU_Wireless.pcf) with a text editor [gedit ../AU_Wireless.pcf] and copy over

Host=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx as IPSec gateway xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

GroupName=xxxxxxx as IPSec ID xxxxxxxxxxxx

then comes the more… hidden… part of this. Take your enc_GroupPwd=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and go to here insert the huge string of characters into the text box, press decode, and copy the new password. Insert it into the new file you’ve been creating as IPSec secret xxxxxxxx

the next line is for your username, insert it as Xauth username xxxxxx

save the file as whatever you want ending with .conf (for me it was au_wireless.conf)

then simply enter [sudo vpnc <name of your .conf file>] and you should be prompted for your password then be rewarded with a success notice!

Damn that was alot more work than it should’ve been.

~ by andyvarner on October 30, 2007.