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Chemistry Network Access from home

What?

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) allows access to "internal" computing resources from "outside" across the internet, in a more transparent and general way than current methods of remote access (ssh, remote desktop etc.). Effectively the home/remote machine will get the same access as if it were on the internal Departmental network. 

Why?

User benefits include:

  • Easier to use than many other remote access methods
  • Once connected, any traffic routed through the VPN tunnel is encrypted
  • Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS can all use this method to connect, making configuration of remote access on multiple devices simpler

I have tried to connect to the VPN, how can I tell if it worked?

Click on this link to find out.

How to connect to it?

General advice

The username is your CRSID followed by @ch.2021.cam.ac.uk - for example, a user with CRSID fjc55 should use fjc55@ch.2021.cam.ac.uk as their OpenVPN username. For the password, you should use your ChemNet token which you can collect from https://apps.ch.cam.ac.uk/ssms/collectchemnet .

If you are having problems with VPN (slow speeds, being disconnected) then make sure you have the latest version of the config file. We tune the settings from time to time to improve performance. Find config files and setup instructions by clicking on the appropriate link for your device below.

If that doesn't help please see our troubleshooting page.

Android

(N.B. instructions written for 4.x but should work on newer versions)

Click here for instructions

iPhone/iPad

Click here for instructions

Windows

Click here for installation instructions

OSX (macOS)

Click here for installation instructions

Linux

Click here for machines using Network Manager (if in doubt, this is the link you want)

Click here for general installation instructions

ChromeOS

Click here for instructions

System status 

System monitoring page

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