Skip to content

Cambridge VPN

Simon Mathis edited this page Dec 17, 2020 · 2 revisions

Cambridge VPN

This page covers the relevant information on (1) what a VPN is, (2) how to set up the Cambridge VPN service.

1. What is a VPN?

The VPN service is a way of connecting your device to the university's network from a remote location, for example from your home or from abroad. When using the VPN, not only is your device connected to the University of Cambridge network, but it appears to actually be located on the network because it will receive an IP address from the Cambridge network (by making connections to services, your machine appears to be coming from a university network IP address).

This means that you can access resources that normally require you to be at the university, using the VPN. Examples of such services include:

  • JASMIN servers
  • Departmental or College resources
  • Some restricted access websites

This is all you need to know to work with the VPN for now. If you would like to know more details, you can refer to the University of Cambridge official VPN information for more information.

2. Setting up

The set up of the VPN is well described on the University's VPN reference. On the left side you should find a navigation side-bar that links to the setup pages for the different operating systems. Select the correct link for your operating system and simply follow this setup guide to set up VPN on your device.

Once you have set up the VPN on your computer, you will need to create an access token that you can use to log into the VPN. You can create one on the tokens website.