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We provide all UQ staff and students free VPN access so you can take advantage of UQ's online resources no matter where you are

What is VPN?

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) allows you to create a secure connection to a private network (such as the UQnet, which is the University's network)) over public access lines.  This connection will act as if it is on the actual private network.  This gives you full access to most services found on the private network (such as certain web pages etc).

What is VPN for?

To explain this it is necessary to take a step back and look at the big picture of the Internet.  In simple terms the Internet is a large network of networks. These networks can be commercial, academic, government, research or private networks.  Each of these intertwine to make up the Internet you use and know. Each of the networks that make up the Internet, however, require a way for their users and the data being transferred over them to be secured from unwanted third parties (such as hackers).

The most secure way to achieve this is to be plugged directly into it by wires, but in many cases this is not convenient or even possible. For someone who is traveling around the country or overseas, or even at home, and who requires secure access to a private network the only way to do this is through VPN.

Why would I use VPN?

If you need to access The University of Queensland network and you are situated off-campus, then VPN is the only way to have full access to online resources. Some parts of the UQ network have restricted options for web visitors from outside the local network (eg parts of the Library website). Using VPN allows you to avoid these limitations and gives you the same use of resources as when you are on-campus.

Students and staff in the Dentistry or Medical Schools will need to use VPN in order to authenticate on the UQconnect Wireless Network. Find out more at the bottom of the page.

Where can I use VPN?

To be able to use VPN, you need to install the VPN Client to the computer(s) you wish to connect from. You can install this on your personal computer, and you may be able to install this on your Faculty or Departmental computer depending on its Administrative setup.

Download the client here.

VPN also requires a computer with access to the Internet. This can be in the form of a free staff or student dial-up account; a home dial-up or ADSL account; or via any other Internet access method.

One issue to be aware of here though is connection speed, in particular your upload speed.  While you can connect via a dial-up connection with no problems, the speed of access will be quite slow as all data sent over the VPN connection must be encrypted and decrypted.  Broadband connections will ensure a significantly faster and more stable connection.  Your upload speed (which is the speed at which you send data onto the Internet) becomes particularly important here as VPN connections send a lot of data back to the host server.

How can I gain access to VPN?

To use VPN, you need to have installed a VPN client to your computer. If you have not done this, you can download and install the Cisco Systems VPN Client from the UQconnect HelpDesk website.  Alternatively a copy of the VPN Client is available on the UQconnect Installation CD.

Once you have downloaded and installed the VPN client, you just have to enter your UQ Sign In username and password when prompted to within the program.  After that you will have full access to the UQ network no matter where you are.

A word of caution though for staff interested in using this service. Some organisational units may also have their own firewalls (that is protection) on their servers. For this reason, please consult your IT support staff to ensure UQ VPN will work for you.

What does it cost?

VPN is free for all UQ staff and students.

Will downloads count against your quota?

All data transmitted during a VPN connection will count towards your UQ download quota, which can be viewed at login.uq.edu.au.  However, if you only access UQ and 'On-net' sites during your connection, then you will have unlimited uploads and downloads.

If you make a VPN connection to use certain online UQ resources, you can still browse Internet pages while using VPN.  Any downloads, from sites 'Off-net' will be quoted in the usual fashion.

Find out more about what is 'On-net' and 'Off-net'.

Do you use VPN on-campus?

Generally you do not need to use VPN on-campus, as the functionality that VPN provides is already present on-campus.  However, at certain UQ locations, the only way you can authenticate on the UQconnect Wireless Network is via VPN.

If you are trying to access the wireless network at the Dentistry School in the city or the Medical School at Herston then you must have the VPN Client installed and set up.  To connect at these locations, you must connect via VPN after which you will be able to surf the web and access online services over the wireless network.