Setting up VPN on a macOS computer
The Northwestern VPN allows you to connect to the Northwestern network when you're off campus. There are two VPN clients you can use: (1) the native VPN client that comes with your operating system, and (2) the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client.
Due to a number of factors, VPN clients may experience difficulties establishing or maintaining a connection in some situations or locations. Common examples include public wireless networks at cafes and bookstores, restricted networks at hotels and conference centers, and countries with restricted Internet access policies. In most situations where one of the VPN clients won't work properly, the other one will.
We recommend you configure both clients to give you flexibility, and the ability to connect to the Northwestern VPN regardless of your location.
Northwestern IT is aware of VPN access issues from China. We tried implementing workarounds by changing our VPN public IP. However, within a few days of these workarounds Northwestern VPN was blocked again by the Chinese telecommunications agency. At the present time, we cannot provide a solution to using Northwestern VPN in China because the Chinese telecommunications agency continually searches for and blocks Northwestern VPN servers. We have heard anecdotally from some people that using a third party VPN service has worked for them, but we cannot confirm which, if any services, will work.