Christina, just for some more food for thought. A VPN does not have to be toa corporate network. You can also use one to jump onto your network at your home while away from home. Frank
-----Original Message----- From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com [mailto:macvisionar...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Christina Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 4:26 PM To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: VPN revisited Oh, thanks that makes perfect sense. :) Thanks, Christina On Sep 29, 2009, at 3:28 PM, Donal Fitzpatrick wrote: > > Hi Christina, > > VPN stands for "virtual Private Network". Basically, it allows me to > connect into my work network from home. I can see the network disks, > send mail, and access all the resources I need to access as though I'm > in the office. > > hth > > Donal > On 29 Sep 2009, at 23:25, Christina wrote: > >> >> This may sound dumb but for my information, could you please let me >> know what a VPN is. >> >> Thanks, >> Christina >> On Sep 29, 2009, at 2:34 PM, Donal Fitzpatrick wrote: >> >>> >>> Hi all, >>> >>> Ok I've been playing around with two VPN clients since I raised this >>> topic about a month ago. The two clients I've looked at are >>> Tunnelblick and Viscosity. In case anyone needs to use a VPN, my >>> thoughts on both are given below. >>> >>> 1. Viscosity. I chose this one first because, as Esther said at >>> the >>> time this topic was discussed, it supports applescript. The >>> installation for this application follows standard OSX conventions, >>> and creates no problems with VO whatsoever. >>> >>> The application is not very accessible in the typical sense of the >>> word. It uses a status menu (NSStatusItem which it locates in the >>> vicinity of time machine, and the other Extra menu items Apple use. >>> Problems with such status menus are well documented here and on >>> other >>> lists so I won't delve into that again. However, suffice it to say >>> that because the status menu is inaccessible, it precludes getting >>> to >>> the menu items, preferences dialog and other aspects of the >>> software. >>> I did ask a sighted colleague to open the preferences dialog for me, >>> and it was navigable, but not easily so. >>> >>> I mentioned earlier that Viscosity does support applescript. One >>> can >>> easily create scripts to connect to, and disconnect from the VPN. >>> This feature makes the application usable. Finally, I'd like to >>> acknowledge the developer of this application. During an email >>> exchange, he acknowledged that the app could do with some work, and >>> also succinctly explained the issues with the NSStatusItem. He has >>> told me that he and other developers have been on to Apple regarding >>> this issue, and await their response. >>> >>> 2. Tunnelblick. This application is very similar to Viscosity >>> described above. However, it is an opensource project, and as such >>> the source code is available. Once again, the installation process >>> is >>> no problem. However, the same issues regarding NSStatusItems >>> emerge; >>> that is, it creates one which cannot be reached using VO. A little >>> digging on the TunnelBlick wiki produced documentation on the >>> preferences, which can be found in a ".plist" file located in "~/ >>> library/preferences". Editing this file in the normal way, (using >>> some educated guesswork) I could actually configure the application >>> to >>> both start wen I logged on, and also to automatically connect to the >>> VPN thereby negating the need to go near the inaccessible status >>> menu. >>> >>> Finally on this application, while it does not, to the best of my >>> knowledge support applescript, it does come with a command-line >>> interface called openvpnstart. One has to drill down into the >>> application package (using terminal) to run this app. Also, root >>> privileges seem to be required to run it. However, this can be >>> scripted using the usual shell-scripts and this approach also works >>> quite well. >>> >>> So in summary, the two clients I've looked at are inaccessible in >>> one >>> sense, but are in fact usable with a little tweaking and >>> experimentation. >>> >>> I hope this helps people, and might just save some time for others >>> in >>> the future. >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Donal >>> >>>> >> >> >> > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
