# UPHS VPN suddenly stops working

One purpose of this document is to illustrate the confusing nomenclature of the system, which might help identify when someone has gone down the wrong path.

## The problem

One day my VPN login, using F5, the "legacy" VPN, stopped working.  No error message, just no connection.  Opening the "log" window in the application did confirm that login was failing.  Since it worked the previous day, I knew it was the first day of failure.  I don't have confirmation of this, but calendar math did seem to suggest this was an expiration of 180 days, so I think that's a fair expectation for other people.  I don't know if the new VPN software changes things, but as of now, it's the legacy VPN that has to be used.

## PMACS is not the answer (you may skip this)

I initially thought my PMACS password was the problem, so I went to the website that allows you to reset that password (which worked fine).  However, then I realized PMACS and UPHS-VPN use different credentials, because I actually have different user ids.  This might be extra confusing for someone that has the same user id for both systems.  Since I had changed my PMACS password, I got an email with a help desk number.  Calling that number simply directs you to medhelp@pennmedicine, and when I got a response from that address, they directed me somewhere else.  The email, which was from Penn Med Academic Computing (Medhelp), told me to submit a ticket to PMACS Service Desk.  So I did.  Those folks told me to call the Penn Medicine Services Desk.  See next section.  I think the distinction is that the first help desk is for the Med School, but the second is for the Health System.  Also note that I was told "PMACS cannot reset domain accounts unless associated with Penn Medicine email."  Does this mean I could have used the first help desk if I had given them a different email?  I don't know.

## Penn Medicine Service Desk was the solution

Finally I called Penn Medicine Service Desk at 215-662-7474. After giving all my info, including that I work from home, they manually set my VPN password to something temporary.  They said to go to pennmedaccess.uphs.upenn.edu to reset my password, and in hindsight, I don't know if that meant before or after using the VPN.  I assumed it meant after, so I went back to the F5 app and used my temporary password.  It said the password was no good, and asked me to set a new one, which did not happen earlier with my old password. The new password, set in the F5 app, worked, so there was no need to go to pennmedaccess.