Remote Access

PLEASE NOTE: The information on this page is only relevant to members of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology private network.

It is not always possible to be able to come into the office and work at your desk with your main computer permanently connected to the network. Therefore, we offer a service known as Virtual Private Networking (VPN) to allow you to connect to the office network without having to physically be in the office or plug your computer into a network port.

VPN allows the remote machine you are working on to appear to be a member of the network, allowing you to access network resources such as your personal network folder (U: drive) and other shared network folders. All you need to be able to use VPN is an internet connection.

VPN also allows you to use Remote Desktop to remotely login to your office computer, allowing you to use programs that may be installed on it that you do not have on your remote machine.

Requesting Access to the VPN Service

In order to be able to use the VPN service, you need to request access from a member of DIDE IT. Once VPN access has been granted you can create and use a VPN connection.

Creating a VPN Connection to DIDE

In order to create a VPN connection to the DIDE private network, please follow the instructions for your operating system:

Instructions for Windows XP
Instructions for Windows Vista and Windows 7
Instructions for Mac OS X

If you need to find out which version of Windows you are using on the machine you want to create the VPN connection on, please have a look at the Which version of Windows am I using? section of the General Information FAQ.

Accessing Network Folders Remotely

Quick Access

Once you have created and activated the VPN connection you can access your U: drive, and other shared network folders, in the following way:

Click on Start and the Run (in XP), or just Start (in Vista/7).
Type in: \\servername\sharename then press return.

Some examples of popular shared folders are:

\\servername\homes\yourusername - Your U: drive
\\servername\tmp - The T: temp drive
\\servername\pcd - The PCD group folder (P: drive)
\\servername\sci - The SCI group folder (S: drive)

If you don't know the name of the shared folder you wish to access, you can browse the list of folders by typing in just \\servername in step two above.

Permanent Access

If you want to make it easier to access the folder, do the following:

Click on Start and then right click on My Computer (or Computer in Vista/7).
Choose Map Network Drive.
In the window that appears, choose a drive letter and in the Folder box, type in the path to the shared folder (see above for common paths).
Tick the box next to Reconnect at Logon if you want Windows to connect to this drive every time it starts.
Click on Finish.

Note: If you choose to tick the box in step four, next time you start Windows it will tell you that it could not reconnect all network drives. This is normal because you haven't initiated the VPN connection yet.

Connecting via Mac OS X

If you are attempting to connect to a shared folder on a Mac, you should:

In the Finder menu, select Go and then Connect to Server.
In the Server Address box, use: smb://servername/ .
Alternatively, if you have multiple folders you want to connect to, in the Server Address box use: smb://servername/ and select all the folders you want to connect to.
Click on Connect.

Accessing Your Home Directory Whilst Offline

You can access your U: home directory from a remote machine (such as your laptop) even if it has no internet (and therefore no VPN) access. This is done using offline files synchronisation in Windows.

If your computer is a member of the DIDE domain, then your U: drive has already been setup to sync automatically, and you do not need to do anything. Ensure you connect to the DIDE domain regularly so that files can be synchronised and updated, either using a network cable or via VPN. To find out if your computer is a member of the DIDE, check the FAQ "Is my computer a member of the DIDE domain?"

If it is not a member of the domain, then do the following to enable offline access for your U: drive:

Connect your laptop to a network port in the office or VPN into the DIDE network.
Map U: to your home directory using the "Permanent Access" instructions detailed above. Contact DIDE IT to find out the exact location of your home directory.
If using Windows Vista/7, right click on your U: drive and select "Always available offline".
If using Windows XP, right click on your U: drive and select "Make available offline". Tick the box next to 'Automatically synchronize' and follow the remaining on screen instructions.

We would recommend that the first time you perform a synchronisation, you do this using a network cable in the office, as you may have a large amount of data in your U: drive that could take a long time to synchronise via VPN over a slow internet connection.

Windows synchronises your data automatically. You can also run a manual sync if you wish:

In Windows Vista/7, click on Start and type in: Sync Center. Then click on the Synch All button.
In Windows XP, right click on your U: drive and choose Synchronize.

Accessing Your Office Computer Remotely

If you have programs on your office computer that you don't have on your remote computer and that you need access to, or you have files saved on the C: drive of the office computer, you can use a utility called Remote Desktop to connect to your office computer.

Remote Desktop makes it seem like you are sitting at the screen of your office computer. You login as normal, you will see all your desktop items as normal, you will have all your programs available, as well as mapped network drives, printers, and your Outlook configuration.

You can even leave programs running on your office computer, and when you Remote Desktop to it, you will see the programs as you left them.

Here's how to use Remote Desktop:

Make sure the computer you want to connect to it switched on. It doesn't have to be logged in, just on.
Initiate the VPN connection to DIDE on your remote computer.
Click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, Remote Desktop Connection.
Type in the name of your office computer, such as DIDE123 and click on Connect.

When you've finished with your remote connection, you can either:

Click on the X on the right of the blue bar at the top of the screen. This will leave you logged in with your programs running.
Click on Start and then Log Off to log you out of your office computer but keep Windows running on it.
Click on Start, click on Windows Security, click on Shut Down, choose Shut Down from the list and click on Ok to switch off your office computer.

Accessing Your E-mail Remotely

If you wish to access your e-mail remotely, you do not need a VPN connection for this. You can either use Outlook Web Access, or you can setup Outlook on the machine you are using by following this guide. Please note that having your e-mail setup on more than one machine will not delete anything from your mailbox (unless you choose to delete it) or affect it in any way.