Hi everyone and Happy New Year Many of our current and prospective customers are asking about Android support accessing their networks by using Firepass. I think this a very hot topic and some official information about this should be communicated. Many other manufacturers of VPN-SSL solutions have published their Android client, and F5 should not be late on arriving to this niche. I think there are many ways to provide access to VPN-SSL to android clients by using the current Linux solution or implementing a new one. So it won't be too expensive for F5 developers to provide a way to access Thanks a lot

Actually you are incorrect. There are no ssl VPN solutions for android OS. Goole has not released the API for network level functions. If you are referring to an ica/Rdp client, you would be correct. Do not mistake this is an ssl VPN solution because it is not! Especially if you are setting this up in a corporate environment. Make sure to properly inform the people making the decisions. F5 does allow web applications through an intranet webtop. However, they only support Safari and the apple products.

Actually, you're both right - there are currently 3 companies with droid ssl-vpn clients for their equipment in droid market - sonicwall, juniper, and stonesoft. _and_ google has not released the api for network level functions, which apparently isn't a roadblock. I manage a network and have a droid, and would like to be able to login to my network with my droid when i get a call from the helpdesk saying there's a problem. since there's a linux client (which works fine), it can't be too difficult to port that to the android version of linux.

Posted By Tim on 01/11/2011 10:44 AM Actually, you're both right - there are currently 3 companies with droid ssl-vpn clients for their equipment in droid market - sonicwall, juniper, and stonesoft. _and_ google has not released the api for network level functions, which apparently isn't a roadblock. I manage a network and have a droid, and would like to be able to login to my network with my droid when i get a call from the helpdesk saying there's a problem. since there's a linux client (which works fine), it can't be too difficult to port that to the android version of linux. Sonicwall = web applications Juniper = web applications StoneSoft = web applications These are not ssl-vpn solutions but a secure intranet access. Much different from a SSL-VPN solution. You can do the same now with Firepass but its a webpage you access and not an application built in.

So I may be using the wrong terminology for this - from the descriptions, those 3 provide access to the network. Are you saying I can access my network remotely now with a droid via firepass? I get to the webpage that says it needs to install an ssl-vpn plugin, but doesn't install it.

Posted By Tim on 01/11/2011 10:51 AM So I may be using the wrong terminology for this - from the descriptions, those 3 provide access to the network. Are you saying I can access my network remotely now with a droid via firepass? No, what you are referring to or at least I am is a webpage hosted internally. That is different from a ssl-vpn solution. It's basically no different than a basic https website. A VPN is a virtual private network. A VPN uses layer 2/3 technology. Google has not released an API for such access. You are not getting a VPN until Google decides to release it.

Android support in Firepass

11 Replies

Mike_61719
Cirrus
Jan 05, 2011
Actually you are incorrect. There are no ssl VPN solutions for android OS. Goole has not released the API for network level functions.

If you are referring to an ica/Rdp client, you would be correct. Do not mistake this is an ssl VPN solution because it is not! Especially if you are setting this up in a corporate environment. Make sure to properly inform the people making the decisions.

F5 does allow web applications through an intranet webtop. However, they only support Safari and the apple products.
Tim_92250
Nimbostratus
Jan 11, 2011
Actually, you're both right - there are currently 3 companies with droid ssl-vpn clients for their equipment in droid market - sonicwall, juniper, and stonesoft. _and_ google has not released the api for network level functions, which apparently isn't a roadblock. I manage a network and have a droid, and would like to be able to login to my network with my droid when i get a call from the helpdesk saying there's a problem. since there's a linux client (which works fine), it can't be too difficult to port that to the android version of linux.
Mike_61719
Cirrus
Jan 11, 2011
Posted By Tim on 01/11/2011 10:44 AM

Actually, you're both right - there are currently 3 companies with droid ssl-vpn clients for their equipment in droid market - sonicwall, juniper, and stonesoft. _and_ google has not released the api for network level functions, which apparently isn't a roadblock. I manage a network and have a droid, and would like to be able to login to my network with my droid when i get a call from the helpdesk saying there's a problem. since there's a linux client (which works fine), it can't be too difficult to port that to the android version of linux.

Sonicwall = web applications

Juniper = web applications

StoneSoft = web applications

These are not ssl-vpn solutions but a secure intranet access. Much different from a SSL-VPN solution. You can do the same now with Firepass but its a webpage you access and not an application built in.
Tim_92250
Nimbostratus
Jan 11, 2011
So I may be using the wrong terminology for this - from the descriptions, those 3 provide access to the network. Are you saying I can access my network remotely now with a droid via firepass? I get to the webpage that says it needs to install an ssl-vpn plugin, but doesn't install it.
Mike_61719
Cirrus
Jan 11, 2011
Posted By Tim on 01/11/2011 10:51 AM

So I may be using the wrong terminology for this - from the descriptions, those 3 provide access to the network. Are you saying I can access my network remotely now with a droid via firepass? No, what you are referring to or at least I am is a webpage hosted internally. That is different from a ssl-vpn solution. It's basically no different than a basic https website. A VPN is a virtual private network.

A VPN uses layer 2/3 technology. Google has not released an API for such access. You are not getting a VPN until Google decides to release it.
Tim_92250
Nimbostratus
Jan 11, 2011
hmmm.... openvpn is available on droid, so not sure about needing google's help in order to get a vpn on a droid, but, i'll be the first to admit i haven't looked at this enough to know the details, so let me finish my flurry of posts by saying that the point of my joining this group was to keep up to date on any developments on androids accessing the internal network via a firepass, so hopefully that does appear at some point.
Jared_Townsley_
Historic F5 Account
Jan 11, 2011
OpenVPN is available, but it'ss for rooted devices. This is because you need to install a kernel module (tun.ko) to enable VPN connections in android.
BT_90520
Nimbostratus
Oct 16, 2011
in case, this is not known :)

F5 BIG-IP Edge Client and Portal Access

https://market.android.com/developer?pub=F5+Networks+Inc.
Wes_Mantooth_10
Nimbostratus
Nov 01, 2011
I am glad someone has added to this. The problem with the SSL VPN product provided is it is dependent on a small subset of Samsung devices. Many of them only work in certain scenarios or equipment is no longer sold. Also, the client has not been refreshed to keep up with new and emerging hardware on the market.

It would be great if the offerings were agnostic to the hardware!
Ben_Cuthbert_90
Historic F5 Account
Dec 07, 2011
Full F5 EDGE Client now available for Android 4.x : https://market.android.com/details?id=com.f5.edge.client_ics

For rooted devices : https://market.android.com/details?id=com.f5.edge.client_root

Updated portal client : https://market.android.com/details?id=com.f5.edge.portal