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IPsec on Mac OS X Panther?
ItsMr.Data wants to take a bite out of this issue: "I just got a new PowerBook with Airport. I wish to use it in the wireless network at the university I attend. The problem is that the university uses BlueSocket to secure the WIFI connections. The BlueSocket gateway is configured for IPsec tunnels. The client tool that BlueSocket provides does not work properly under Panther. I was told by the network department that it would be up to me to find a solution until BlueSocket comes out with an updated client. Being a poor college student, I would like to find a cheap or free solution. I have never worked with VPNs or IPsec. Do any Slashdot readers have any good ideas?"
Can't you use the Internet Connect application that ships with OS X to make an IPSec connection to their VPN? That's how I connect to my school's.
First post?
Vonal Declosion
A new Powerbook? I wish I was a poor college student.
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The IPSec facilities in Panther should be more than sufficient for what you need. In my experience (in very nearly the exact same situation, as well as similar ones at corporation), the hardest part is wrangling the proper information out of your support staff. First you have to find someone who know WTF you're talking about. then they have to find the information. then they (may) have to get approval to give it to you. that generally involves convincing some clueless administrative type that you're not an 3vi1 h4xx0r. and then they have to actually give it to you. and the odds of getting the info right on the first try is not so good.
my biggest bit of advice is find some friendly, knowledgeable admin, find out what she likes to drink, and buy her lots of it.
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
When I was an organizer with NJPIRG at Rutgers, I used Bluesocket's IPSEC utility with early Developer's builds of Panther and it worked fine. YMMV.
LEAP is proprietary as well. A more open standard is PEAP.
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Yeah, the first post has a good idea. Use the Internet connection utility. It allows you to create a IPSec connection and is integrated very well with Panther.
Would that be Microsoft PEAP (PEAP-EAP-MSCHAPv2) or Cisco PEAP (PEAP-EAP-GTC)?
:-p
The lovely thing about open standards is that there can be some many ways to implement them
Windows ships with a client that supports MS PEAP. The Cisco aironet client supports Cisco PEAP. They are not really compatible. The MS PEAP client works great when authenticating against and NT Domain or an AD. The Cisco version works with more third party radius backends to authenticate clients. Designing a wireless security and authentication infrastructure can be interesting. Particularly if you want to avoid storing cleartext passwords anywhere.
The Apple Panther client supports L2TP over IPsec. I am not sure what bluesockets is doing with IPsec, but that would be a good thing for them to support.
The IPSec VPN software that is built into panther is missing a lot of features that would make it actually useful. It does not support NAT Traversal, so you can't use it from behind a firewall or NAT device. It does not support XAUTH, which I assume is what your school is using to authenticate you.
.pcf files that describe the connection manually. Cisco has docs on their site of what each line does. I use the Cisco client under OSX to connect to my Netscreen box at home, and I use it for work too. Although, the Netscreen required messing with the .pcf file.
You may be able to use the Cisco VPN client though. The GUI for OSX is fairly unconfigurable, but you can edit the
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
I've tried to connect to my school's network, too, with little success. We use Cisco's VPN, and it's the same deal: no Panther-compatible client.
1 11911433687&query=cisco+vpn
Best I can do for you is this hint at macosxhints:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2003
I tried it, and it didn't work, but who knows...maybe the settings files for your VPN client are similar. Stab in the dark...it's all I got.
Hello,
I'm the software engineer responsible for the Mac client for Bluesocket. The client software *should* work with Panther. The client software isn't really client software, however, its just a frontend to the built-in IPSec support that was first made available in 10.2.
If you're having trouble, you can try emailing support@bluesocket.com. Because it is just a frontend to the built-in support, you can try this on the command line to see if you're logged in:
$ sudo setkey -D
Which will print out your tunnel status. If it comes back empty, you're not connected. If you see two tunnels, you're good to go. (the GUI will reflect this as well)
I just tested it again on my Panther box, and it works OK. As an aside, you can also ask your network admin if they support PPTP. The bluesocket box has PPTP support, and is compatible with Jaguar and Panther's PPTP client.
Thanks!
I find Slurpees(Squishees? whatever) and donuts work best. I somehow manage to get a PC upgrade every cycle... my co-workers are mystified ;)
Sig goes here.
I don't have experiece with the other IPSec frontends...
But I can tell you that Vaporsec works well (http://afp548.com) -- oh and don't download the Jaguar version on the site, download the version in the forums (The major difference between the two are a few applescript bugs of no consequence, but it's nice to have a bug-free system.
And I suggest you ask your admins for the PRECISE configuration, it's not really easy to implement.
Mike
Back in my day we didn't have all these fancy wireless type connections. We were happy with the new 2400 baud modem pool and ignored the 1200 baud pool. Inside the campus ISN (predates ISDN) was the communication method preferred (with WIRES).
... we WROTE IT ourselves.
The problems over the years really haven't changed all that much. My ISN port was @ 9600 baud and I wanted the full 38,400 baud available. Hack in.
Fortunately the modem pool tied in via ISN -- need a modem? Reset a few ports and take control. Server on campus too busy? Knock 'em all offline. I can even think of a few locks on doors that didn't slow us down. Oh, and when we needed software
Hack on.
at www.equinux.com. relatively cheap considering ease of use - and they might have a student discount, if you ask (beg).
I use IPsecuritas v 1.0.3 http://www.lobotomo.com It works with Panther's built in IPSec "racoon" which is a command line tool. man racoon for more info. IPSecuritas works great and its FREE
[sarcasm]I don't know if I'd say Microsoft stuff is proprietary since they're basically THE software company.[/sarcasm]
Bluesocket is based on open industry standards. Many cisco products also support open standards, but they have been known to work in the odd bit of proprietary crap here and there. Cisco more often just do standards a bit early, before they're widely agreed upon, then bring their system in line with the ratified versions of the standards.
I suspect IHBT...
.sig: file not found
If you want a free solution that's actually as configurable as VPN Tracker, check out IPSecuritas (http://www.lobotomo.com). It can be tricky to configure, but we got it to work with our company's Checkpoint VPN without altering anything on the firewall side. It even does DNS settings replacement. Not perfect, but better than anything else I"ve run across.
I've been using Internet Connect to connect to our school network. If that doesn't work you can use freeware VaporSec (URL: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/ 17212) which is graphical configuration of 'racoon' which is the built-in VPN in Mac OS X. You will need a alot of information from the school's network people to configure this properly.
Saying that PEAP is a more open standard than LEAP isn't going to help anybody connect to a VPN. WPA, 802.1x authentication and even WEP don't really have anything to do with PPTP or IPSEC VPN's, other than they both use encryption and some of them authenticate by username/password. If this guy's school is using Bluesocket VPN I don't think they're worried about using open standards, they've already dished out the money for this VPN solution and I'm willing to bet they'll stick with it. All that aside, I suppose you are right, LEAP is less proprietary than PEAP, I just don't think it's relevant to this situation.
Check out IPsecuritas:s x/networking_s ecurity/ipsecuritas.html
http://www.apple.com/downloads/maco
It has connected to every VPN endpoint/router that I have tried to connect to, with the exception of point to multipoint access. VPN Tracker had to release a new racoon binary to get point to multipoint to work. (This is only an issue if you must connect from a fixed IP address and almost no one does this anymore.)
The racoon IPSec stack in OSX is based on the kame (kame.org) project. See afp548.com for a writeup on how to get the whole thing working via the command line.
Remember, IPSecuritas is just a GUI for something already built in to OSX.
This "Ask /." is one of the examples of what's great about /.: The author of the relevant software responded.
And he's at (Score:+5, Informative), you kidder.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Stop doing this! Stop putting in measures that limit your students to whatever resource you are most comfortable supporting. It's just plain lazy and uncaring.
The [Australian] University of Wollongong's ITS department is in the process of doing something similar; installing a wireless system that will lock out Mac users (until someone figures out a way around it). In a school! So anyone who chooses to use a Mac gets callously dismissed with a 'Too bad. Sorry. Go buy a Windows machine.' and that's it. They can't be bothered to support you because they don't care to try.
It's unconscionable and just plain lazy.
http://www.uow.edu.au/
- I am made of meat.
Not everybody has the time or interest to learn about what ipsec is. A GUI with an IP, username and password should be ALL that's needed to set up an ipsec tunnel. VaporSec, Cisco clients both give you this. If the sysadmin gives you the right info, should take all of 5 minutes to get connected. Less time than reading the first two pages of kame.org. And then on with your real work.
Hence the OP.
You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
You would be surprised at how responsive they can be. They typically don't know anything about technology (that's why they hire other people to do that stuff)
Explain to them that while their solution is good, it falls short on what the university should strive to provide. Tell them that universaly WiFi access helps their current students and increases their attractivness to potential students.
And with me typing this reply, it will now probably be the only response when somebody types in "PEAP Panther Chocolate Ovaltine"
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