Installing UTORvpn

These instructions were written to configure the OpenVPN plugin to NetworkManager in Ubuntu. They will probably work on any Linux platform that has NetworkManager and the OpenVPN plugin, but other platforms have not been tested. In Ubuntu, you can usually verify whether you are using NetworkManager by looking for the presence of the following icon in the menu bar, on the upper right of your screen:
     

  1. Start by ensuring that you have the OpenVPN NetworkManager plugin installed. You can do this by opening a terminal window, and typing:

    # sudo apt-get install network-manager-openvpn-gnome

  2. Next, go to https://vpn.utoronto.ca/, and log in with your UTORid and password. Follow the instructions there to create your UTORvpn certificates and configuration. Once created, download the certificate package and using a terminal window, unpack the file. It will contain three certificate files: 
        # tar -zvxf utorvpn.tgz
    x ca.crt
    x user.pem
    x key.pem
  3. Now click on the NetworkManager icon in the menu bar, and select "VPN Connections" → "Configure VPN...".
  4. In the box that appears, click on the "VPN" tab, and choose "Add".
  5. Make sure that "OpenVPN" is selected in the drop-down menu that appears and click "Create...". If you do not see "OpenVPN" menu, ensure that the OpenVPN NetworkManager plugin has been installed correctly as indicated in the first step.
  6. Now you will need to enter the configuration details. The screenshot below should give you most of the default values. "Connection Name" should be "UTORvpn". Uncheck the "connect automatically" box. The Gateway is vpn.utoronto.ca, and Authentication Type is "Password with Certificates (TLS)". Enter your actual UTORid in the "Username" field. I+TS recommends that you set the "Password" field to "Always Ask", so that your password is not stored in the system. The next step is to enter the three certificate files you unpacked in step 2 into the boxes. Once you have set all of these configuration options, click "Save...".
  7. That's it! Now that you have configured UTORvpn, continue reading here to learn how to start up and use UTORvpn.