- General Wireless Questions
- Virtual Private Networks
- General VPN Client FAQs
- Windows Cisco VPN Client
- Mac OS Cisco VPN Client
- Linux Cisco VPN Client
Virtual Private Networks
- What is a Virtual Private Network (VPN)?
- Does using a VPN make all of my network traffic secure?
- Why use the VPN remotely, from home?
- How do I use the VPN remotely, from home?
What is a Virtual Private Network (VPN)?
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) uses advanced encryption and tunneling to establish secure, private network connections over "third-party" networks. For example, the CAEN Wireless network is set up as a virtual private network, so it is closed off from the Internet. Using the Cisco VPN client, provided on this web site, will allow the University of Michigan community to access the Internet via CAEN Wireless over a secure, encrypted connection from their laptops. See more general information about CAEN Wireless.
Does using a VPN make all of my network traffic secure?
No. A VPN only encrypts the network traffic between the client computer and the VPN server. For example, The CAEN Wireless VPN is limited to the CAEN Wireless network. Thus, it only encrypts your wireless network traffic. Similarly, if you use the VPN client remotely, from off-campus, only the traffic from your computer to the U-M network will be encrypted.
To ensure that all of your network traffic is secure (including your password) once it hits the Internet, you should always use encrypted protocols such as SSH, SFTP, SCP, and SSL. See this page for further information on these tools, and links to free downloads:
Why use the VPN remotely, from home?
Services such as Microsoft Exchange and Windows file sharing are not always available to off-campus computers, without a U-M IP address. Typically, the users affected are those who are connecting from home, using a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP).
In order to use services like Exchange from home, you must connect using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) client. Connecting with the VPN client will give you a U-M IP address so that you may access these services. If you would like to obtain a copy of the VPN client and appropriate profile for home use, please contact your departmental computing staff. See this page for more information:
How do I use the VPN remotely, from home?
To use the VPN from home, you must download and install the Cisco VPN client on your computer. Once installed, you must import a profile specifically for remote, off-campus use. To import the profile, click the Import button within the VPN client. Once imported, make sure the profile is highlighted, and then click the Connect button.
For more information on remote VPN connections to CAEN, refer to:
