How to Set Up Mac Wireless

You'll need to:
Make sure that your Airport wireless card is enabled.
Connect to the campus wireless network (SSID "valpo").
Open a web browser to login to "Clean Access."
Install and run the Cisco VPN client (only required for access to services other than the web).
* The "Clean Access" login is required before the VPN client can login.
** The native Apple VPN client is not supported at this time.

Open System Preferences and select "Network."




Choose your Airport interface and click "Configure..."



If the lower-left lock is locked, click it and enter your administrator password. Then click "Options..." to configure your network options.



If you leave the "By default, join" option set at automatic, it should find the wireless network named "valpo." A slightly-more-secure option is to only allow your computer to join "Prefered Networks."




Enter the Network Name "valpo" in the preferred networks setup. This name is also known as the SSID. Click "OK."




The setup with "Preferred networks" should look like this. Click the "Apply Now" button. You can close this window.



If you click on the Airport icon on the menu bar, it should indicate the status of your Airport card.




Next, open Safari. Any web page you try to access will be redirected to a "Clean Access" login. You'll see this warning.




Then you'll see this login.



Cancel the next warning (see below). This is a bug in the "Clean Access" software. It does not work well with Safari. (If you happen to continue, you'll need to press the "back" button on Safari to make it work properly.) Click on the "Accept" button. You're accepting the university's appropriate use policy, which should be displayed on the page above the accept button.



You are now connected to the network. You will be able to access Web resources. SSH ports are also open (if that means anything to you.)



Before you can do other useful things with the network (like email or ftp), you'll need the VPN client.
Go to the IT download web page to download that.

Then select the version appropriate to your operating system.

Download it.



It should load pretty quickly.



Mount the disk image by clicking "continue" when prompted.



Click the red box icon to launch the VPN installer.



Wade through the installer. Select your hard drive when prompted.



And it's installed. (No need to reboot or anything. That's only for PC's.)



You'll find the "VPNClient" in your "Applications" folder. You'll probably want to drag it to the dock to make it easier to launch when needed.

 

Launch the VPN client and click "Connect."



Enter your LDAP username and password when prompted. (That's the same username/password you use for email, coursevu, and a few things like that.)



You've now got full network access. Do note that the VPN client will give an unhelpful error message if you try to run it before you login through a web browser. Remember: Launch Safari, login, THEN run VPN and login again.