Remote access and VPN
TUNI VPN in staff’s maintained devices
TUNI Linux VPN on centrally managed staff computers
eduVPN for students’ and staff’s own computers, and those on resource agreements
Remote access to TUNI Linux servers
What does VPN mean and what are its benefits?
Most of Tampere Universities community´s services are also available outside the campuses. You can use them just by opening the web service in your browser and log in with your TUNI ID and password. The network services of Tampere Universities community that cannot be accessed in this way directly are available over a secure VPN connection.
TUNI VPN in staff’s maintained devices
TUNI VPN is available on Windows computers managed by Tampere Universities community. It comes automatically installed with a TUNI laptop. The service offers dynamic IP addresses only.
Open the VPN connection directly when logging in to the computer
- Click the Network sign-in icon at the bottom right corner of the screen.
- Enter your TUNI user name and password.
Use this method when working on the campus wireless network or remotely. This requires the computer to be connected to a network already at startup e.g. a home network or a wifi network shared from a phone.
Opening the VPN connection after login to your computer
Opening the connection after logging in may be necessary if the VPN is disconnected for some reason, or if you are using eg. a hotel network where connection can only be opened through a web browser.
- Click the Internet Access icon at the right side of the taskbar, which opens a list of network connections.
- Choose TUNI VPN
- Click Connect.
TUNI Linux VPN on centrally managed staff computers
See usage instructions on the page Quick guide – Linux computers.
eduVPN for students’ and staff’s own computers, and those on resource agreements
eduVPN connection can be used on students' and staff’s own devices and only when you need to use a service that is only available in the university network. It can also be used to have a secure tunnel for your network traffic when using an untrusted network for example in a cafe. When you no longer need eduVPN, disconnect the eduVPN connection.
Those people on resource agreement may use the eduVPN who have an extended resource agreement that grants them a staff-equivalent IT contract, but not if the person has a basic resource agreement.
eduVPN install instructions:
- Download the VPN application from https://www.eduvpn.org/apps.html
If your computer is running Linux, instead of the above address, open this page and follow its instructions: https://eduvpn.tuni.fi/vpn-user-portal/configurations - Install the application on your device and open it. Search for Tampere Universities under Institute Access and select it.
- Log in with your TUNI ID and allow the application to manage your VPN settings. The application downloads the VPN settings to your device, which you will use in the future to sign in to eduVPN.
NOTE! Login to TUNI eduVPN is done without multi factor authentication (at least at the moment), so login to TUNI eduVPN differs from other TUNI www services. - Once TUNI eduVPN configuration is set, you can find Tampere Universities under Institute Access in eduVPN app main page. Click Tampere Universities to open TUNI eduVPN connection.
- When you no longer need a VPN connection to use the University’s services, make sure you turn off the VPN connection with the Disconnect button.
Please note that with a VPN connection, all internet traffic passes through the VPN server on campus. As a result, the university community’s Terms of use for IT systems apply to VPN use.
With eduVPN app you can also use Secure Internet connection. This does NOT provide you an access to university network, so you can't use Secure Internet to connect to services only available via university network.
If you can't find eduVPN app for your device or the app does not work, you can also use OpenVPN app. You can find more instructions for this at https://eduvpn.tuni.fi/vpn-user-portal/documentation.
Remote access to TUNI Linux servers
TUNI Linux remote desktop and ssh servers are also available remotely. For instructions on using these, see the Linux SSH and Remote desktop servers page.
What does VPN mean and what are its benefits?
The purpose of the Virtual Private Network (VPN) is to build its own secure network over a public transmission link. VPN ensures that data is not altered, lost or copied while it is transferred over a public internet connection.
The VPN technology can be used, for example, to connect remote parts of the organisation's network. The key application is Remote Access VPN, which allows the user get a tunnelled connection to the organisation’s network from their device over the internet.
With VPN, you can access online services from outside Tampere University community’s campuses in a manner that enables the services you use to receive your traffic from the campus network. Some services (such as identity management or software license services) are restricted to the campuses’ IP addresses only, which means that you cannot access them from your home without a VPN. With VPN, you get an IP address on campus so you can use restricted services from home.
VPN connection can also be utilized as added security layer if you are connected to an untrusted network for example in a cafe or a hotel.
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