During a regularly scheduled maintenance window from 5 to 7 a.m. on June 29, Information Technology Services (ITS) will upgrade the ISPtoPSU (psuconnect) Virtual Private Network (VPN) service from one machine to load-balanced hardware to ensure better performance and robustness of the ISPtoPSU service. In addition, the current hostname for the ISPtoPSU connection, vpn.aset.psu.edu, will change to vpn.its.psu.edu; however, the vpn.aset.psu.edu address will not be removed and will continue to function as usual.
During the maintenance timeframe, the ISPtoPSU service will not be available; however, users of the ISPtoPSU service will not be required to make any changes to their respective VPN software configurations.
It should be noted that firewall administrators will need to add additional IP addresses to their respective network firewall configurations prior to the update, so that the VPN can get through such firewalls. IP address information is available at https://www.work.psu.edu/firewall_info/ online.
The Penn State VPN is a secure network connection that uses encryption and other security mechanisms to ensure that only authorized users access the network and that data is secure. The ISPtoPSU VPN connection allows those who are connecting to Penn State networks via a third-party Internet Service Provider (ISP) to establish a Penn State network address in order to access University resources that are restricted to Penn State IP addresses.
Questions and requests for assistance should be directed to ITS Help Desk staff at helpdesk@psu.edu. Information about Penn State's VPN service is found via the ITS Knowledge Base (KB) at http://kb.its.psu.edu/article/874.