The department provides a VPN service. This is useful for providing a secure, encrypted network connection from anywhere in the world into the department network. The VPN will allow you to use services that are normally restricted to machines physically located inside the department from the wireless network or off-campus. The most common uses are to provide encryption for wireless communication, enabling SMB-mounting UNIX filesystems on windows laptops or home computers, or authenticating to the department to allow use of departmental network software licenses.
Complete setup instructions are available at http://www.cs.umd.edu/vpn