Filed under: Software, Internet Tools
Shimo 1.0
VPNs are a staple of corporate life nowadays. They create a secure connection from your computer to your company's computers using a 'Virtual Private Network.' This allows you to access company documents via public networks in a secure fashion.Cisco is a big player in the VPN market, and luckily for us OS X users there is a Mac client that allows connections from Macs to Cisco VPN appliances. Sadly, it sucks. The interface isn't Mac like, and while it works it doesn't offer up any nice features like Keychain integration or automatic reconnects. Enter Shimo, from nexUmoja. This little program offers up an alternative UI to the Cisco client that adds a number of features including Keychain integration, Growl notifications, and auto reconnecting.
All of this is great and as a user of Cicso's VPN client you would think I would use this without hesitation. Sadly, the whole point of VPNs is to make your communications more secure, and I simply don't trust a third party app sitting between my encrypted data and the Cisco VPN appliance. That's just me though, I'm slightly paranoid.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rafe H. said 10:16PM on 5-22-2007
"I simply don't trust a third party app sitting between my encrypted data and the Cisco VPN appliance."
I'm sure it just provides a GUI for the command-line programs that already come with the Cisco VPN client. No "sitting between" going on here.
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Brandon said 10:19PM on 5-22-2007
Yep, Rafe H. is right, Shimo just provides a nice user interface to the Cisco command line application, the same way the Cisco provided application works. Only difference...Shimo has a great UI, Cisco has a terrible UI. This is why you need to have the Cisco software installed before Shimo can work. It doesn't touch your data, it just tells the Cisco command line app what to do.
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Bill Lynch said 11:17PM on 5-22-2007
Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is awesome. I've been using the Cisco client for months and it's terrible. Shimo is a *wonderful* alternative and it works perfect.
Great work guys!
--Bill
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Hervé S. said 11:28PM on 5-22-2007
If you don't trust a 3rd-party closed app you may wish trying Tunnelblick, based on OpenVPN: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16969
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Steve said 1:33AM on 5-23-2007
Sorry, but if I want a VPN, I'll set it up myself. Otherwise it's not 'private' right? ;)
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joe said 1:42AM on 5-23-2007
to steve: this is a solution for those who need to connect to a cisco vpn appliance, which 9 times out of 10 are setup on corporate (or in my case university) networks by IT departments. users generally can't setup their own vpn solution on these networks, and if you're setting up your own at home or a small business you probably don't want to use a cisco appliance anyway
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Markp said 3:28AM on 5-23-2007
This works great! It uses all your Cisco client settings, so no re-configuring!
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Markp said 3:33AM on 5-23-2007
BTW for you paranoid people: it is released under GNU, so you should be able to check if it's harmful.
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Sumsa said 4:14AM on 5-23-2007
Since you still need to have Cisco VPN installed to use Shimo, you might also consider simply writing a small shell script for connecting (that would be like /usr/local/bin/vpnclient connect MYVPN user MYUSERNAME pwd MYPASSWORD), making it executable and then using Quicksilver to access different VPNs. Well, at least that is what I do. ^^
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joachimb said 7:51AM on 5-23-2007
Don't trust Shimo? Check out the source code.
svn co http://svn.nexumoja.org/Shimo/trunk Shimo
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KiltBear said 10:18AM on 5-23-2007
Just a sanity check... ANY program you install on your computer could potentially look through data and send it back out to a hacker over some sort of background network connection. Know who you are dealing with!
Additionally, I would think it is highly LESS likely that something that calls attention to itself by directly interacting with a VPN is going to steal and share that particular information.
My guess is that Shimo does what #9 suggests, but in a very handsome format. Anyone look through the code yet?
NB:
As an IT guy I remind you: PLEASE don't save your VPN password in a keychain unless you have turned off autologin and turned on requiring passwords when coming back from sleep or screensavers.
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Dirk S said 11:45AM on 5-23-2007
Does anyone have a suggestion for a VPN clients for the Nortel line? The Apani clients sucks big way.
Thanks
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Tom said 1:49PM on 5-23-2007
Psshh! I don't trust any code I don't write myself!!!!!!!!!
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