Hi, It's worth commenting as an addition to Dónal's very nice summary of VPN clients that there was a specific requirement for software to work with "Open VPN", which is one popular version of VPN software that works cross-platform and which was the chosen VPN software version for his organization.
On this issue of inaccessible status menu icons, I'm moved to wonder, what does Dropbox do? For background, Dropbox is a popular file sharing tool that works cross-platform. You register at Dropbox.com when you download the software and you're initially given 2GB of space (more if you upgrade to a paid membership). Files that you move into your Dropbox folder on one machine can be accessed from your Dropbox on another machine (which could be a Windows or linux machine), or through a web interface to your account. You can also email people links to files in your Dropbox and update/sync versions of the file across your Dropboxes. Anyway, there's a very odd interface on the Mac, because the status bar icon that you need to access to open your Dropbox folder also can't be navigated to with VO-M twice, or Control-F8 or combinations of these with arrow keys under VoiceOver. What I found does work is to bring up your window chooser menu (VO-F2 twice) under Finder. Then, if you have Dropbox installed, you see a window called "untitled". If you select that from the window chooser menu and route your mouse cursor (VO-Command-F5) to that "window" and click (VO-Shift- Space or any "hardware clicks" by pressing a mouse button, trackpad, or the "5" on a numeric keypad with NumPad Commander activated) you get the Dropbox menu to come up as though you had been able to navigate to the status bar icon and open the menu. I haven't seen this documented in other forums or lists, except for my own comments on another list and some months later on this list. Whatever Dropbox is doing, I suspect they're not using NSStatusItem or the Extra menu item that Apple uses -- at least not in any conventional way. It is also possible to work with preference file setups through GUI- based plist editors, though I think it is more straightforward to just use the terminal command line if you know what parameters you want to change. Cheers, Esther 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
