The University of Sheffield
Corporate Information and Computing Services

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

VPN is used to establish a secure link from a remote computer to services at the University. It allocates a Sheffield IP address effectively making your computer part of the campus network. If you need a VPN connection to access a service, you will need to start VPN each time you wish to use that service.

When connecting using the native Windows client, only one computer can connect from any one router. In a shared student house it is better to use the Cisco VPN client as this does not suffer from the same limitations.

Setting Up Windows and Mac VPN

VPN is already available on your computer. It is easy to set up using the links below.

Cisco VPN

Cisco provide a VPN client that some people consider superior to VPN on Windows and Macs.

Using VPN

To use the VPN service you need to know your Remote Access password.

VPN Connection Problems

Some common problems with VPN are explained below.