University VPN

Connecting to the University VPN
Sometimes you will need to connect to the university Virtual Private Network, or VPN, from home. Quite often you'll have to do so to access journals when you're at home, or to access some of the services your department may offer.

Begin by opening Internet Connect from the Applications folder.


You'll probably be greeted with a Summary screen a bit like this:


From the file menu, choose "New VPN Connection..." and at the prompt, choose PPTP:


Under Configuration, choose "Edit Configurations..."


You'll need to fill in the following information:

Description: Lancaster University
Server Address: vpn.lancs.ac.uk
Account Name: Your ISS Username
Account Password: Your ISS Password
Encryption: Automatic (128 bit or 40 bit)

Select the OK button.

I also find it useful to make sure that "Show VPN status in menu bar" label is ticked.

To connect to the VPN, open Internet Connect, select the Lancaster VPN connection you just created, and click Connect.

You will need to set the Proxy server settings for the VPN (PPTP) connection in System Preferences - You can find instructions on how to do so at http://lumacintosh.blogspot.com/2007/06/proxy-settings.html

Proxy Settings

Proxy Settings within Lancaster University
To increase the speed of web access, and reduce the amount of bandwidth the university uses at any one time, several proxy servers are in place on campus. Here's a quick guide on how to set them up.

From the Apple Menu at the top of the page, choose "System Preferences..."


When System Preferences loads, select "Network" under the "Internet & Network" group:


I recommend that you create a new Location for Campus if you haven't done so already. To do so, click on the Drop-Down box next to where it says "Location" and choose "New Location...". When prompted type in Lancaster or something else appropriate.

You'll need to do the following for each connection you plan to use. In my case, I use a macintosh laptop and so I often use both the "Built-in Ethernet" and the "Airport" connections. I've entered proxy-server settings for both of these.

Double click on the connection you want to enter settings for and from the tabs at the top, choose "Proxies".


The easiest way to enter the proxies settings is to select "Using a PAC file" from the "Configure proxies" drop-down list and then entering
http://wwwcache.lancs.ac.uk/ into the "PAC File URL".


Alternatively, you can enter the following settings under the HTTP, HTTPS and FTP proxy servers spaces:

Server: wwwcache.lancs.ac.uk
Port: 8080



Once you've entered all of the settings, click the "Apply Now" button.

Connecting to Lancaster Wireless

Connecting to Lancaster University Wireless Networks
You may have noticed that there are several wireless networks available at Lancaster University, perhaps you've never been sure which is the best to use.
On the official university wireless network, you'll probably see four wireless networks. The best one of these to use is the eduroam wireless network.

Why is it the best network to use?
The main reason that you should use eduroam is that it is a secured wireless network, but on a Macintosh, you can also set your computer to automatically connect to the eduroam network whenever your computer is in range and log into it. In comparison, the lancaster network does not encrypt your network data so someone could potentially listen in to anything you send over the network. You'll also find that the lancaster network wants you to log into it regularly, and doesn't always work well with Safari.

How do I set it up?
There are a few very simple steps to set up the eduroam network:

1) Load up the Internet Connect program from the Applications menu
2) From the File menu, choose New 802.1X connection
3) Fill in the settings as suggested below:
Description: Lancaster
User Name: Your ISS Username
Password: Your ISS Password
Wireless Network: eduroam
Authentication: Make sure that only the TTLS box is ticked.


4) Now click OK.

The first time you connect to the eduroam network, you'll be asked if you're sure you want to accept the Wireless Network security certificate. So that you aren't asked every time, you can set your laptop to Always Trust this certificate (Screenshots forthcoming).

That's all there is to it :)

Connecting to your network Homestore

Connecting to your University Home Drive
As a mac user at Lancaster, you may be wondering how you can connect to your 'H' drive to get access to all of your documents. Some instructions are provided at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/iss/pclan, but these don't cater for Macintosh OS X at present.

The easy way
Back in about 2004, I put together a piece of Apple Script to automatically connect to your ISS homestore. In 2006 it was made widely available via the ResNet CD so I've put it on my website at http://www.andrewrn.co.uk/downloads/software/lancs-filestore.dmg. Simple download the dmg file, copy the file into your Applications folder, and eject the disk.
To use, just double click on the icon as you would for any other piece of software.

To disconnect the drive, select the icon on your desktop and drag it to the trash can in the dock.

The manual way
You'll need to have a look at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/iss/pclan and type your username into the box to find your folder number - write this down as you'll need it in a minute.
As an example, my username is nicols so my folder number is 57.

Open Finder and at the menu at the top, choose 'Go' and then 'Connect to Server...'









In the box that comes up, type in one of the following:

smb://homes1.lancs.ac.uk/[0-19]/[username]
smb://homes2.lancs.ac.uk/[20-39]/[username]
smb://homes3.lancs.ac.uk/[40-60]/[username]

If your folder number was from 0-19, choose the top line. If your folder was from 20-39, choose the middle line. If your folder was from 40-60, choose the top line.

Since my folder number is 57, I go for the bottom line:

smb://homes3.lancs.ac.uk/57/nicols

Now click on the 'Connect' button. Your computer should now connect to your network home directory at the folder number will show up on both your Desktop and in the Finder window.

Useful Software

I started using Macintosh computers in 2003 when I came to Lancaster to study Music Technology. The music department only use Macintosh computers and as soon as I arrived, I started learning.

I got my first personal Macintosh in October 2006 and absolutely love it. Here's a list of some of the most useful software I use. Most of it is also free.
When I get a moment, I'll put an entry together for each piece of software I use to give you more information.

This is by no means a complete list either, just the things I use most frequently.

Software:
Quicksilver - http://quicksilver.blacktree.com
Quicksilver is a piece of software for those, like myself, who like their keyboard shortcuts. Rather than using the Finder interface to locate and start a program, simply hit Command (Apple) and space together and begin typing the application name. It also works for Address Book contacts, MSN contocts, documents, and all sorts of other things.

Firefox - http://www.firefox.com
Firefox is a web browser which you can use instead of the Safari browser which comes with Macintosh OS X. It's freely available and very similar to the Firefox versions available for both Windows and Linux. You can also add 'extensions', which allow you to do all manner of things from setting the start page to different pages each day, to developer tools, and all sorts of other customisation. It's really handy and probably my most widely used application.

Adium - http://www.adiumx.com
Personally, I'm not so keen on the macintosh implementations of MSN Messenger, or AOL messenger, or in fact, most messenger clients produced by a company. Instead, I prefer to use Adium. It speaks a load of messenger languages so you can use it for MSN, AOL IM, Yahoo, GMail, ICQ, and pretty much every messenger client you can think of. There are a few configuration issues on campus because of the Proxy Servers, but these are better than they used to be.

BibDesk - http://bibdesk.sourceforge.net
BibDesk is a really useful bibliography manager. I use it on a regular basis, particularly when I'm writing essays. A lot of sites have an option to export 'bibtex' (Said BibTeck) which is a format for storing bibliography information in. BibDesk allows you to import this bibtex data, add your own comments, extract the Abstract for easier reference, and record all sorts of other appropriate metadata to go with it. If you use something like LaTeX or ConTeXt to write your documents as many journals ask you to use, and some departments (Maths and Physics) ask you to write your dissertation in, then you can use the same bibtex file that BibDesk saves to.

Handbrake - http://handbrake.m0k.org
If you ever want to rip your dvds to the computer, then this is probably the best software for the job. I use it regularly to rip DVDs to MP4 to watch on both my Apple TV and my iPod. It's a really nifty piece of software and completely free to use.

iRed Lite - http://www.filewell.com/iredlite
If you own a newer macintosh with a remote control, then you'll find this piece of software to be quite handy. At present, Microsoft Powerpoint does not support the remote control, but you can use iRed Lite to emulate the keys you press to move between slides using the Apple Remote - Very handy during presentations!

OmniGraffle - http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/graffle
This is one piece of software I would definately consider buying, particularly if you ever need to do anything like flow diagrams, wire frames, or basic design. It's a basic design package but it's very powerful. If you also use OmniOutliner, then you can get it to take a list from there and build your flow diagrams, HTAs, etc.

Opera - http://www.opera.com
Another Internet Browser. Opera is another alternative to Safari but not one I use so often. It does have it's advantages - it uses less memory than Firefox and Safari for example.

SuperDuper! - http://www.shirtpocket.com/superduper
You should back up your computer on a regular basis and SuperDuper! is a great program for backing up to an external hard disk. If you have a FireWire hard disk and use SuperDuper! to back up, you can also boot from your firewire disk if something goes wrong. It's a free piece of software, but if you do decide to buy, then you can also do things like scheduling backups on a regular basis.

TextMate - http://www.macromates.com
It's creators describe it as the 'Missing Editor for OS X'. I personally find it very very useful, but it's particularly useful for developers and LaTeX users. It doesn't do any formatting so don't be expecting to use it for all of your essays etc.