This blog entry is dedicated to all OS X Users at the College of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg. It explains in depth how to connect your Mac to your Personal School Disk via VPN.

1. How to find out your Macs’ MAC Address

The Schools Network Admin has to enable your Computers Network Interfaces on the VPN gateway. Be sure that you gave him the right MAC Addresses.

W-LAN MAC

Go to the System Preferences – Network and click on Advanced, a Popup Window will show up:

LAN MAC

You can also run these commands in the Terminal Application:

Ethernet/LAN Mac

ifconfig en0 | grep ether

W-LAN Mac

ifconfig en1 | grep ether

2. VPN via Internet (usual case)

Let’s move on to the VPN Configuration on your Mac. Since the Cisco VPN protocol is implemented by Mac OS X you don’t have to install any 3rd party application (such as on Windows . Go to the System Preferences, then open Network.

VPN Infos (for Advanced Users):

Create a new VPN connection and select Cisco IPSec as your VPN Type

Then enter the server address vpn-gw01-inet.eif.ch and your account name and password (you will be prompted for your password each time you log in)

Then click on Authentication Settings and enter the Group Name EIA-Inet, I cannot post the Shared Secret Password to this blog, please ask the help desk for further information (or write me an e-mail).

Click on ok. Thats all. Try to connect.

3. VPN within school (school public wlan)

Same as above, just for the public wlan network of the school

4. Auto-connect Network Drives at login

You probably know how to connect to the network drives (cmd-k or Finder-Go-Connect to Server)…

But I’m shure that you wonder how you could connect your network drive after logging in… Well the problem is: If you are at home you need VPN access. And the OS X VPN client doesnt provide with an auto-connect mechanism.

I created a little AppleScript Application that handles this problem for you. Open the AppleScript Editor (you might have to install the Developer Tools) and insert this code:

tell application "System Events"
	tell current location of network preferences
		-- name of your VPN connection
		set VPNconnection to service "VPN EIA-Fr via Internet"
		if exists VPNconnection then
			connect VPNconnection
			-- you have 5 seconds to enter your VPN password =)
			delay 5
			tell application "Finder"
				mount volume "smb://hefrfas01/stefan.aebische"
				--you can mount volume "smb://hefrfas01/formation_hefr$"
				-- you can mount volume "smb://hefrfas01/transfert_ata_hefr$"
			end tell
		end if
	end tell
end tell

Save it as an Application (not Script!)

Then go to the System Preferences – Accounts and select your user, then choose the “Login Items” Tab and add your AppleScript Application:

Have fun =)

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