netExtender, Java and the SonicWALL vpn on OS X Mountain Lion

Had to access a SonicWALL vpn from my mac today. Seems like the client the gateway provided me was really old and not Mountain Lion compatible, not to mention its designed to launch from Java JNI and the Java browser plugin has been removed from OS X by default and you have to install the Oracle version to have the browser plugin.

The bad news is i had to go through an entire registration on the Dell operated mysonicwall.com to get the latest, Version 6.0.726, of netExtender.

The good news is that neither the Java browser plugin nor Java in general is required to establish a connection. As it turns out, the entire Java thing is just a wrapper around a simple command line tool used to establish the connection.

I simply dug out the netExtener binary from the NetExtender app and placed it in ~/.bin and than added a zsh alias to start the vpn tunnel.

So executing:

netExtender --username <username> --password <password> --domain <domain> --auto-reconnect --mtu 1500 --ppp-async --dns-prefer-remote <server>

would give you:

NetExtender for Mac OS X - Version 6.0.726
Dell SonicWALL
Copyright (c) 2012 Dell

Connecting to <server>...
Connected.
Logging in...
Login successful.
SSL Connection is ready
Using SSL Encryption Cipher 'AES256-SHA'
Using new PPP frame encoding mechanism
Using PPP async mode 
Connecting tunnel...
Client IP Address: <local ip address>
You now have access to the following 2 remote networks:
    10.0.0.1/255.255.255.0
	192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0
NetExtender connected successfully. Type "Ctrl-c" to disconnect...

and the vpn tunnel you wanted, without Java…

See also the ubuntu followup Dell SonicWALL NetExtender with upstart in ubuntu.

I have never regretted my decision for I learned from my master much that was wise and good and true. When at last we parted company, he presented me with his eyeglasses. I was too young, he said, but one day they would serve me well. And in fact, I am wearing them now on my nose as I write these lines. Then he embraced fondly, like a father, and sent me on my way. I never saw him again, and know not what became of him but I pray always that God received his soul and forgave the many little vanities to which was driven by his intellectual pride. And yet, now that I’m an old, old man I must confess that of all the faces that appear to me out of the past the one I see most clearly is that of the girl of whom I have never ceased to dream these many long years. She was the only earthly love of my life, yet I never knew nor ever learned her name.
Name of the rose. Jean Jacques Annaud. 1986.

the TOEFL iBT and Internet Explorer in the Post-PC era

I just completed the TOEFL iBT sampler test. It only runs on Internet Explorer, which only runs on windows. Windows is not my, and potentially quite a few other academic candidate’s, choice of Operating System. Not necessarily surprising when you consider the fact that politicians think that Encyclopedia Britannica is where you find information today. The last question on the survey asked if i had comments so i put in the following:

We are now in the “Post-PC” era. Microsoft Internet Explorer consists of less than 45% of the browser market. The majority of users experience the internet on tablets and smartphones. Governments throughout the globe advise their citizen to refrain from using Microsoft Internet Explorer due to serious security threats. The federal government spent over a decade pursuing litigation against Microsoft for anticompetitive practices, culminating in claims that it leveraged its monopolistic control of the Operating System market to create another monopoly in the browser market. I am an avid Open Source advocate who has not been using Microsoft Windows in over half a decade. I was forced to waste my precious time to gain access to a legacy Microsoft operating system just so that i can run the TOEFL iBT sampler. Do you think you can find the time to make the TOEFL iBT compatible with more advanced browsers and join the rest of humanity in the 21st century?