Wednesday, December 3, 2008

VPN for Linux Installation

VPN for Linux
Installation

These steps have been tested on recent versions of RedHat, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Slackware.

1. Obtain the IPSec Group Name and IPSec Password for either on campus use or off campus use by clicking the following link: VPN Account Information.
2. If prompted, enter your SacLink User ID and Password. If you have not created your account or have forgotten your account ID or password, see SacLink Information for details.
3. Obtain the VPN client from the Software Distribution Web Site by clicking the following link: http://software.csus.edu/
4. Click on the Obtain Software link in the left navigation bar.
5. Read and agree to the terms of distribution by clicking the I Agree link at the bottom of the page.
6. Log in using your SacLink username and password.
7. Locate the Cisco VPN Client for your operating system and click the Download link.
8. Click the Download Now button.
9. Save the file to your home directory. The file could take a few minutes to download depending on your connection speed.
10. Once the file is downloaded, close your browser.
11. Open a terminal session. How this is done depends on your distribution of Linux and whether or not you are running X windows.
12. Change directory to where you downloaded the file. If you downloaded the file to your home directory, simply type cd
13. Unpack the file that you have downloaded by typing
tar xvzf vpnclient-linux-4.0.1.A-k9.tar.gz
14. Change directory to the newly unpacked directory
cd vpnclient
15. You need to be the root user (superuser) to run the install script.
Type su and press enter.
16. Enter the root password.
17. To install the client type: ./vpn_install
18. Accept all the default selections by pressing the Enter key.
19. Restart your computer, or type (as root)
/etc/rc.d/init.d/vpnclient_init start
to start the vpn client without restarting.

Configuration

The following instructions assume you are using the vi (vee-eye) text editor. But you can use any text editor, such as emacs or pico (the instructions will vary slightly depending on your choice of editor).

1. Open a terminal session and become root (superuser).
2. Type su and press enter. Enter the root password.
3. Create a User Profile for the VPN Client. The default location of the sample profile is /etc/CiscoSystemsVPNClient/Profiles/.
4. Type cd /etc/CiscoSystemsVPNClient/Profiles/
5. Type ls
6. You must copy the sample.pcf file and rename it. To do so, type
cp sample.pcf oncampus.pcf
(offcampus.pcf for off campus connections).
7. Typevi oncampus.pcf
8. Using the arrow keys on the keyboard, place the cursor after the = sign at the Description prompt.
9. Press the esc key and then the x key, to delete the previous information.
10. Press the esc key and then the i key, to enter the new information.
11. Type Sac State On Campus VPN Connection or Sac State Off Campus VPN Connection at the prompt for the Description.
12. Using the arrow keys on the keyboard, place the cursor after the = sign at the Host prompt.
13. Press the esc key and then the x key, to delete the previous information.
14. Press the esc key and then the i key, to enter the new information.
15. Type vpn.csus.edu at the prompt for Host.
16. Using the arrow keys on the keyboard, place the cursor after the = sign at the GroupName prompt.
17. Press the esc key and then the x key, to delete the previous information.
18. Press the esc key and then the i key, to enter the new information.
19. Type the IPSec Group name you obtained from the VPN Account Information document.
20. Using the arrow keys on the keyboard, place the cursor after the = sign at the Username prompt.
21. Press the esc key and then the x key, to delete the previous information.
22. Press the esc key and then the i key, to enter the new information.
23. Type your SacLink login name at the Username prompt. The file should look like the On Campus or Off Campus sample.
24. Save the new profile by pressing the esc key followed by a colon and letters wq and then press enter (esc :wq enter).

Running the Client

1. Connect to the Internet.
2. Open a terminal session.
3. Type the following:
vpnclient connect profile
(where profile for on campus connections is: oncampus; and for off campus connections is: offcampus ).
4. It will prompt you to enter the group password.
5. It will display your SacLink user name.
6. At the password prompt, type your SacLink password.
7. The VPN services should now be enabled.
8. Connect to the Internet.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

CCNA: List of Simulator Tool

Followings are CCNA simulator tool for practicing CCNA

Packet Tracer - Packet Tracer 5.0 is the latest version of Cisco Networking Academy’s comprehensive networking technology teaching and learning software. Innovative features of Packet Tracer 5.0, including powerful simulation, visualization, authoring, assessment, and collaboration capabilities, will help students and teachers collaborate, solve problems, and learn concepts in an engaging and dynamic social environment. Moreover, it's totally free! You can download this software but you need to register first or you can find a mirror download with google (with keyword "download packet tracer")

Screen shots:


SemSim - The free trial version (2.3MB) offers some CCNA exam router simulation labs & 20 flash cards

Screen shots:



Boson NetSim - Boson offers three certification-focused products, NetSim for CCENT 7.0, NetSim for CCNA 7.0 and NetSim for CCNP 7.0. The NetSim for CCNA 7.0 product contains CCNA-specific lab exercises that cover the skill set you will need to prepare for your CCNA exam. The demo version (21.58MB) is a good choice to get started.

Screen shots:



CertExams offers advanced network simulators including router / switch / terminal simulator. The simulators help in preparing for networking exams such as ccna or jncia. It would also be very helpful for those who want to get started with configuring Cisco or Juniper routers in a simulated environment. The demo version (6.95MB) is limited to:

- Six lab exercises

- Router simulator is limited to User EXEC, Previleged EXEC, and Global Configuration mode commands.

Screenshots:


RouterSim's CCNA Network Visualizer - You can design, build and configure your own network. The demo version is 44.49MB. It is ideal for:

- Anyone studying for the Cisco® CCNA™ 640-802 exam

- Deployment over a LAN network

- Distance education and deployment on a Citrix server or Microsoft Terminal Services

- Corporate trainers and employees

- Students at colleges, universities, and technical institutes

Screen shots:


Thursday, November 27, 2008

How to Connect to a Network Printer in Windows XP

For most home users it is very easy to connect to a printer. Older printers are usually connected to the parallel port, while the new printers are connected to the USB port. Once the printer is connected and drivers loaded you can easily select the printer from the list and begin printing.

For those on a network that have printers you can use, you have to take different steps to connect to the printers. While the steps to connect to a network printer are different than connecting to a local print, they aren’t complex and can be performed very easily.

Network Printers

Unlike local printers, network printers are usually connected to a server somewhere on the network. Connecting printers in this manner allows many people to use the printers very easily without having to disconnect and reconnect the printer.

Any printer can be connected to the network, even printers used at home. Describing how to do that is beyond the scope of this post, but I’ll look into writing one in the future. To connect to a network printer you would need the name of the server connected to the printer, and the name of the printer. Once you have those two pieces of information you can connect to the printer.

Connecting to a Network Printer

To connect to a network printer, simply do the following:

  1. Click Start->Settings->Printers and Faxes. This will display a window listing all printers currently setup on your computer.
  2. Click the Add a printer icon to start the Add Printer Wizard.
  3. On the first screen, click the Next button.
  4. On the Local or Network Printer screen, select the A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer) option, and then click Next.
  5. Since you know the server and printer name (hopefully), select the Connect to this printer (or to browser for a printer, select his option and click Next option.
  6. Enter the server and printer name in the format: \\[server name]\[printer name]. For example, if your server name is printserv and your printer name is laserprinter, then the path would be \\printserv\laserprinter.
  7. Once you enter the name, click Next to continue.
  8. When a connection to the printer is established, and you have other printers currently installed, you will be prompted to set the new printer as the default printer. This means that when you click the print button in an application, this printer will be the one automatically selected first.
  9. Select Yes to make the new printer the default, or No to keep the current default printer. When done, click Next to continue.
  10. A summary of the newly added printer appears. When you are finished reading the information, click Finish to continue.

You have successfully installed a new network printer to your computer.

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