March 1, 2009

Connecting to NUS VPN via iPhone

Today whilst I was at K-Gourmet Cafe, I felt like connecting remotely to my XPS from my iPhone. The iPhone natively of course doesn't support RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and as such one needs to install an app that allows you to do so. I personally use Jaadu RDP for this purpose though there are quite a few out there.

Since my computer lies on the NUS domain, the app works, but ONLY over WiFi which initially was fine for me until today, as for some weird reason there isn't a hotspot at K-Gourmet!

Since I have a data plan with SingTel I wanted to figure out a way to connect to the comp over 3G. In order to be connect I first had to be on NUSNET by some means or another. I tried the obvious route of WebVPN, with not much hope (because of the Java requirement), and unsurprisingly it authenticated me, but didn't do much else!

I was always aware that the iPhone had VPN settings (with CISCO IPSec - which is what NUS used to use before WebVPN). I tried searching for the settings but couldn't come across anything substantial and with a LOT of trial and error, I finally had success!

So below, I shall post the settings for anyone who wishes to connect to NUS VPN from outside NUS using an iPhone:


  1. Make sure the iPhone can connect to the internet via WiFi or 3G
  2. Go to Settings-->General-->Network
  3. Click on VPN
  4. Choose "Add VPN Configuration"
  5. Click on the IPSec tab
  6. Enter the following settings:
    • Description: NUS VPN (or anything else you want to name the profile)
    • Server: 137.132.3.181 (this is for connecting from outside NUS)
    • Account: u0XXXXXX (your NUSNET ID)
    • Password: Leave blank (you will be prompted when you connect)
    • Group Name: inside-nus
    • Secret: inside-nus
  7. Hit "Save" on the top right corner
  8. Connect to VPN.

That should be it, you should now be prompted to enter you credentials and then get a message welcoming you to NUS VPN!

NB: For the server: vpn.nus.edu.sg should work as well, but I've not tried it.

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5 comments:

  1. Mary ShaneJuly 06, 2010 8:24 PM

    I have it up en running on 8.10, and helped a colleague the other day to sett it up, and all we used was the info above.This was really helpful! More power to you and to your site!


    vpn

    ReplyDelete
  2. SamNovember 27, 2010 9:32 AM

    hi there,

    thanks for your guide.

    i tried connecting my iphone to VPN using the settings above but it kept prompting me for the password again and again.

    any idea what I should do?

    ReplyDelete
  3. MatthewMay 21, 2011 5:40 PM

    It seems these settings don't work anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownSeptember 21, 2015 8:04 PM

    Thank you.Good manul for VPN connection.
    Nice solution for Iphone.
    It works perfect.
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    ReplyDelete
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