VPN for Wireless / Off-Campus Access to Files and Services
You must use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection to access RC services and your data from off-campus, a wireless network, or when your computer isn’t connected to the Sciences networks. For example, the data storage systems RCFS1, RCFS2, and RCFS3 are accessible through the RC VPN.
First, if you don’t already have one, get an OpenAuth token at https://software.rc.fas.harvard.edu/openauth. Your e-mail address must be up to date with RC in order for this to work.
Then, log onto the VPN at https://vpn.rc.fas.harvard.edu. The USERNAME field in the form requires two parts: username and realm. Your username should be your RC username, and the realm is usually odyssey.
Username: username@odyssey
Password: (supply your usual RC password)
Verification Code: (enter your current six-digit OpenAuth token)
There are other possible realms for specialized use by certain groups:
- ncf
- instrument2
- ilt
- helpman
- huh
Once you’ve established a VPN connection, your computer has a secure tunnel to the RC network through which you can map storage and connect to systems. If you’re sure your password is correct, but still can’t authenticate to the VPN, try troubleshooting your OpenAuth token.
If your computer runs a 64-bit version of Linux (if running “uname -m” at a command prompt returns “x86_64″), you may encounter issues using this VPN service. A workaround exists for Ubuntu systems. In a Terminal Window:
sudo apt-get install ia32 libs lib32nss mdns
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/firefox
cd /usr/local/firefox
sudo ln -s /usr/lib32/libnspr4.so .
sudo ln -s /usr/lib32/libnss3.so .
sudo ln -s /usr/lib32/libplc4.so .
sudo ln -s /usr/lib32/libsmime3.so .
sudo ln -s /usr/lib32/nss/libsoftokn3.so .
After this, you should be able to use the VPN client to establish a secure connection.