LDT Remote Observing (Mac Specific Steps)

Remote observing instructions, using a Mac with OSX 10.x

A) Setting up a VPN connection to the Lowell network

This setup uses the Mac OSX native VPN client.  The way the Lowell VPN setup is configured, it will route all network traffic through Lowell while the connection is in place.  (There are ways to split the traffic up, but they are challenging to set up.)

The connection can be setup using the native Mac VPN client using L2TP over IPsec protocol.

1. Go to Open Network Preferences > Click the + sign (lower left, above the lock) to create a new service. 
2. For Interface, select VPN, select VPN Type of L2TP over IPsec and name the service to your liking (e.g. VPN to Lowell - L2TP).
3. Once the new VPN service has been created, fill out the page along the following lines:  
   
   1. Configuration: Default.
   2. Server Address: 207.192.243.66 (primary) or 4.53.111.130 (backup)
   3. Account Name: [Contact your home department or LDT staff for your departmental VPN account name / password / shared secret]
4. Click on Authentication Settings.
   1. Under User Authentication, select Password,  and enter your password [See above].
   2. Under Machine Authentication, select Shared Secret and enter the shared secret [See above].
   3. Then Click OK.
5. Click Apply.
6. Click Advanced.  Under the "DNS" tab and enter the follow information.
   1. DNS Servers: 10.10.100.32
   2. Search Domains: Lowell.edu
   3. Under the "Options" tab, make sure that "Send all traffic over VPN connection" is checked.

B) Setting up a VNC connection to dct-obs1 or dct-obs2

Once you have a VPN connection into the Lowell network, you are ready to connect to the VNC server on dct-obs1 or dct-obs2. 

Note: Contact your TO first to know which machine is free to use at the moment.  All instrument control software and data access is identical on both machines.

The default option is to use the Apple ScreenSharing client, which is detailed here.  If you want, you can use an alternate VNC client, like RealVNC or tightVNC, see LDT Remote Observing (Linux Specific Steps).

1. From the Finder menu bar, select the Go menu, and at the bottom click on "Connect to Server ... ⌘-K".
2. In the top text box that says Server Address enter vnc://dct-obs1.lowell.edu or vnc://dct-obs2.lowell.edu
3. Click Connect.
4. You will get a dialogue box that has two fields, Name and Password. The Name field will likely be pre-filled with your local computer login name.  Delete that and enter:
   1. Name: observer
   2. Password: <observer account password> (ask your TO if you don't know this)
   3. Then click "Connect"
5. At this point, the system will bring up the ScreenSharing window (the MacOSX application that contains the VNC client).  By default, it shows a window that has the entire remote host screen. There is a menu on the left that allows you to select the whole display, or either Screen 1 or 2.  Most observers limit themselves to using Screen 1 only, but both are available.