Getting Juniper Network Connect VPN Client Running on Mac OS X 10.6+
There are a number of problems getting the Juniper Network Connect VPN client running on the Mac. The permissions on directories are not correct after install, there are issues with the 64 bit kernel, problems if VMWare or Parallels is installed, etc. These instructions are the result of research I did to get Network Connect 6.2.0 running on OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard). If you have Network Connect installed already you should uninstall it completely.
To Remove Network Connect
You may not have some of the files listed to run or remove and you can just skip those steps. You should review these steps carefully particularly if you have other Juniper products installed. They remove directories that may include installations of other Juniper products. These instructions should be run from your home directory.
You may not have some of the files listed to run or remove and you can just skip those steps. You should review these steps carefully particularly if you have other Juniper products installed. They remove directories that may include installations of other Juniper products. These instructions should be run from your home directory.
- sudo /usr/local/juniper/nc/install/uninstall_nc.sh
- sudo rm -R /Applications/Network Connect.app
- sudo rm -R /usr/local/juniper
- sudo rm -R /Library/Frameworks/net.juniper.*
- sudo rm -R /Library/Internet Plug-ins/net.juniper.*
- sudo rm -R /Library/Widgets/Network Connect.wdgt
- sudo rm /private/var/db/receipts/net.juniper.*
- rm -R Library/Application Support/Juniper Networks
- rm -R Library/Caches/net.juniper.NetworkConnect
- rm Library/Preferences/net.juniper.NetworkConnect.plist
- rm -R Library/Logs/Juniper Networks
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To Install Network Connect
![Juniper Network Connect Mac Download Dmg Juniper Network Connect Mac Download Dmg](/uploads/1/2/7/5/127521621/388453197.jpg)
- Download NetworkConnect.dmg. I was unable to get the applet installer from the VPN login to work correctly. You can download the dmg file directly from your vpn site. Add the path “/dana-cached/nc/NetworkConnect.dmg” to your VPN URL. If your VPN login is at https://vpn.mycompany.com/… then you would download from https://vpn.mycompany.com/dana-cached/nc/NetworkConnect.dmg. You may have to login to the VPN site to access the download.
- Open NetworkConnect.dmg and run the installer. If you get an error saying there is already a version installed do the uninstall steps above.
- sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/juniper/nc/[version number]
- sudo mkdir ‘/Applications/Network Connect.app/Contents/Frameworks’
- If you have VMWare or Parallels installed you will have to deactivate the network interfaces they add. If you don’t do this you will probably be able to connect but have a very high packet loss rate. You may have similar issues with other products that interact with routing. To do this go to ‘System Preferences -> Network’ and change ‘Configure IPv4’ to ‘off’ for these extra interfaces. They will typically be named something like ‘Ethernet Adaptor (en2)’. Entries like these in the Network Connect log are indicative of this type of problem:
- sudo chmod 4711 /usr/local/juniper/nc/[version number]/ncproxyd
- If your kernel is running in 64 bit mode you will have to change it to 32 bit mode. This may no longer be true with newer versions of Network Connect but it is for version 6.2.0. You can change the kernel to 32 bit mode temporarily by shutting down then holding the 3 and 2 keys down while starting up.
You should now be able to launch Network Connect from Applications. Since you did not use the applet installer you will have to enter your VPN URL. This does not include the path part of the URL. For example: https://vpn.mycompany.com.
Recently my laptop decided it no longer wanted to start. While it was in the Genius Bar, I dug up an old Macbook Pro (called MBP throughout the rest of this post) and began to configure it so I could use it for work. Configuring a different laptop gave me the opportunity to try out some new/updated applications and see if I could find more ways to be productive (I will cover this in a future post). In addition, it brought up some old issues I had experienced and gave me a chance to fix them and document them. In this post, I would like to talk about the problems I experienced attempting to connect to a Juniper Network Connect (called JNC throughout the rest of this post) VPN and how I was able to get it resolved.
Issues with Chrome
On my MBP I use the Chrome web browser (I have an Android phone). One of the first problems I experienced with JNC is that I cannot use it with Chrome as JNC requires a 64-bit web browser and the production version of Chrome is still 32-bit. As such, I typically use Firefox to get on my JNC VPN and then Chrome for everything else.
UPDATE: Well look at that, appears I missed the announcement: Chrome is now 64-bit on Mac and JNC now works through Chrome! Thanks for the tip!
UPDATE: Well look at that, appears I missed the announcement: Chrome is now 64-bit on Mac and JNC now works through Chrome! Thanks for the tip!
Issues with Safari
While configuring my MBP, I decided to give Safari another shot as I had not used the browser in a long time. When I attempted to connect to JNC, I was greeted with the following error message:
I was confused by this as I had already installed the latest version of Java 8 and the Java test confirmed my browser was working as expected. A quick Google search turned up this post, which suggested installing the Java package available here. Upon doing so and restarting my MBP, the error message was gone.
Next, I was presented with a different error message:
Next, I was presented with a different error message:
I consulted Google again and came across this post. Reading through the comments, someone suggested modifying the settings of the Java JNC plugin with Safari so that it did not have to run in Safari’s sandbox. The exact steps were:
- Safari > Preferences > Security
- Under “Internet plug-ins” > “Website Settings…”
- Select Java from the left-panel list
- Under “Configured websites” select the Allow drop-down from your VPN URL
- Select “Run in Unsafe Mode”
- Select Trust in the pop-up
- Select Done
Upon following this steps and attempting to connect to JNC, the VPN connected as expected! Wow, way too much work just to get on the VPN. After about ten minutes, I attempted to connect to a site behind the VPN and the site did not load. I noticed that JNC was not running! I fired it back up and it connected as expected. Again I was able to access sites behind the VPN. About ten minutes later JNC silently quit again. Looking to Google I found this post. Unfortunately, it merely had a workaround to the problem: use Firefox…
![Mac dmg file Mac dmg file](/uploads/1/2/7/5/127521621/637879044.png)
Avoiding the fat client
Now you might be wondering why I do not just download the JNC fat client and connect to my VPN that way. While this works, I use a single sign-on (SSO) solution, which allows me to authenticate once in my web browser and then be able to access everything that I need. Using the fat client would require me to authenticate twice. Now technically I have this problem anyway as I need to use Firefox and Chrome, but I was considering moving back to Firefox for a while, but eventually decided against this.
Mac Os X Dmg Download
Solutions
So it looks like the options are:
Record Connect Dmg
- Firefox
- Fat client
I look forward to the production version of the 64-bit Chrome…
Juniper Network Connect Mac Download Dmg Windows 10
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