On the morning of August 4 2003, the campus VPN (Virtual Private Network) server will be replaced with new hardware.
Once the server is replaced, some VPN clients may need to be reconfigured slightly in order to connect to the new server, or use slightly different procedures when connecting. These changes are described below.
Customers who currently use OIT VPN service are welcome to try the new server before it replaces the old server. We encourage them to do so and to report any difficulties they encounter, so we may resolve them before the new server replaces the old one. To try the new server before August 4, see How to Test the New OIT VPN Server. If you discover problems introduced by the new server, please report them to the OIT Help Desk.
Although we would prefer that no client reconfiguration be necessary, we have found that some clients will need to make a few changes when using the new VPN server.
The new VPN server does not provide IPX (Novell Netware) service. IPX is a legacy communications protocol being retired from the campus network.
When you try to connect to the new VPN server, your VPN client may warn you that IPX is not available, or even refuse to connect to the new VPN server.
If you experience either difficulty, reconfigure your VPN client software so it does not require that IPX be available via the VPN connection.
When configured with a blank username or password, some VPN clients try connecting to the VPN server first with the blank value(s), then when this fails, prompt you for your username and/or password.
That worked with the old VPN server because the old server allowed you to try several incorrect username/password combinations before it disconnected you. When your VPN client prompted for your username/password, you probably never realized that it had already tried using the blank value(s), failed to connect, and was actually prompting you for new values for it to retry.
The new VPN server only permits you to try a single incorrect username/password combinations before disconnecting you. When your client tries to use blank value(s) and fails, the new VPN disconnects you; it does not give your VPN client a chance to prompt you for new values to retry.
The solution is to enter a username and password into your VPN client's connection window before telling it to connect to the VPN server. You should not need to save the password (it doesn't need to be stored on the client's disk); you need only enter it in the connection window before telling the client to connect.