Once you have connected your Sun to your home network and have access out to the Internet, you may want to use VPN to connect into work. In my particular case, the company uses the Nortel VPN server so there is an advantage in using the Nortel VPN client. It is my understanding that there is a way to get FreeSwan to work with the Nortel VPN server, but I have never persued this. The rest of this article describes aquiring and setting up the Nortel VPN client for Solaris.
You can download a free 30 day trial version of the Nortel VPN client by registering. You download the software and they send you a key which will work for about 30 days a period of time. Go to Nortel Networks Multi OS Web Site and you will find a link which will allow you to register and then download the software. Nortel then mails you a key to use along with a link to download the sofware and a link to download the readme file.
The software comes in Solaris PKG format. You also get a Readme file which
give details on installing from CD. You take the sol_2.0.tar tar file and untar it.
This creates a directory named sol_2.0. Run:
pkgadd -d sol_2.o
and you will be given the oportunity to install the nleac package.
After you install this package you will be instructed to reboot.
After you reboot, your CDE toolbar will have an icon that looks like this:
.
When you click on this
icon, Netscape will be started (netscape needs to be in your $PATH) and
a web based interface will be brought up.
Enter the License key and the other information required for the VPN connection. If you have the instructions for setting up VPN on the Windows Client, you will find spaces for all the same information on the web based client.
Once you connect, you will have an IP address on your corporate network which you can view via ifconfig -a. In addition, you will be cut off from your local network while you are connected via the VPN. You can then telnet, display back, and perform other activities as if you were at work.
If you decide you really like this and want to shell out the money for a license, you can buy one from Insight.com. They accept credit cards and you get a discount if you identify yourself as an AGCS employee. Make sure that you actually are an employee, because they ship the software to the work address. At the time I bought the license, it was $81 with the discount.
At the Insight web site, search for product DM0021013 which is the Contivity VPN client for Unix. They send you a huge box, with a big envelope in it, with a folder in this, with a CD in the folder. (Sounds like those Russian Dolls). The client is the same as what you downloaded so you really only need the registration code from the back of the CD package. Open the Nortel VPN Client and click the link which says register. You go to a web page where you get to enter the registration code from the back of the CD. Then they email you the license code which you paste into to the appropriate text entry box in the VPN client.
You are now ready to go