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Access your University documents from home!

You can do this before you've even matriculated :smile:

Very often, vital information such as past papers and tutorial group assignments are only available when you connect from a computer on campus - when trying to access from home you would recieve a 'forbidden' error. The instructions below makes it possible to access these pages from home - a much better option than walking to a university computer in a cold Edinburgh winter :smile:

Navigating through all the pages and pages of technical stuff in the uni website to set this up is a bit of a minefield - so here's a handy list of just the essential steps.

1. Go HERE to register for university internet and VPN access.
2. Go HERE and select which operating system you use.
3. Follow the instructions on the page you are taken to. They are pretty straightforward.
4. Check that you are connected to the VPN (You should see a small, yellow, closed padlock in your taskbar).
[INDENT]-At this stage you can access the pages on the university websites which are normally forbidden from home, such as coursework, past papers, eJournals and tutorial information. You can stop at this stage if you are not interested in accessing your documents from home as well.[/INDENT]

5. Go HERE to find the location of your M: Drive on the university website. (Click on 'Look Up Home Directory Now')
6. Copy your home directory to your clipboard. (It will be something like \\arran.sms.ed.ac.uk\Home\s0123456)
- If you are using a Macintosh you will need to change the backslashes to forward slashes.
7. Go HERE and scroll down to either 'Accessing your M: drive - Windows' or 'Accessing your M: drive - Macintosh' and follow the instructions to open your M: Drive. :smile:

I've never really used the option to access my M drive from home, but the access to restricted webpages is really useful.

You should also realise that while you are connected to the VPN, all your internet traffic goes through the university - so don't do anything illegal :P

Reply 1

oxymoronic

19

do you work for the IT people in the library or hugh robson by any chance?
or are an incredibly bored informatics student?

Reply 2

Fwapper

OP

2

Second option :P Although not really since I haven't even matriculated yet...

I just find it weirdly cool to access my university documents before I've even got there :P Well, it would be if I had anything there.

That and it took ages to do first time round so a list of the steps will be handy for people/me if I need to do it again :smile:

Reply 3

oxymoronic

19

I'm a 4th year and have never felt the need to access my files from home so don't have any of that set up, I just use a USB for what I need.... although given your an informatics person you'll probably have more need for it than I do!

Reply 4

Rian1988

14

So do I need to have that cisco application open all the time if I want to view the folder? It says that I am connected to the uni network, what does this mean? Can they see what I'm doing on the internet etc at the moment?

Reply 5

Fwapper

OP

2

Rian1988

So do I need to have that cisco application open all the time if I want to view the folder? It says that I am connected to the uni network, what does this mean? Can they see what I'm doing on the internet etc at the moment?

You need it open to view the folder. It's not much different from being connected to a normal website, except that it is only open to students and staff. Oh and it's slightly more effort :smile:

And no-one is watching you :P

Reply 6

Eadaoin

HELP

just realised there now that i have to set all this stuff up and got up to instrustion number 3. did everything it said but the last instruction:
The first time you attempt to connect to this SSID, a dialogue balloon will appear in the systems tray prompting the user to Select a certificate or other credentials

Click in this balloon to display Fig 7

how do i do this??

theres nothing in my wireless connections list or taskbar!?

Reply 7

Eadaoin

but it says i cant connect until the server is in range? so how can i set iy up from here?

ok scratch that, got it sorted now im just stuck on the very last bit where its asking me about the name of a scottish island that i apparently got sent out on a piece of coloured paper!? i hvnt got anything of the sort...is it because i hvnt sent back my registration forms??

ignore me. i'm a complete idiot. i managedd to figure it out but all i got at the end was an empty folder!? computers confuse me so very much. i also have nothing in my inbox except an e-mail from the it people welcoming me and telling me to how to set stuff up

Reply 8

Fwapper

OP

2

Eadaoin

ignore me. i'm a complete idiot. i managedd to figure it out but all i got at the end was an empty folder!? computers confuse me so very much. i also have nothing in my inbox except an e-mail from the it people welcoming me and telling me to how to set stuff up

I like it when people figure stuff out :P

That empty folder is basically your 'My Documents' folder at university. It's empty now because you haven't done any work at uni so far... but obviously that will change :P

Means you won't have to bring stuff home on a USB drive, you can just access it directly.

Reply 9

Rainfaery

12

Fwapper

You can do this before you've even matriculated :smile:

Navigating through all the pages and pages of technical stuff in the uni website to set this up is a bit of a minefield - so here's a handy list of just the essential steps.

1. Go HERE to register for university internet and VPN access.
2. Go HERE and select which operating system you use.
3. Follow the instructions on the page you are taken to. They are pretty straightforward.
4. Check that you are connected to the VPN (You should see a small, yellow, closed padlock in your taskbar).
5. Go HERE to find the location of your M: Drive on the university website. (Click on 'Look Up Home Directory Now')
6. Copy your home directory to your clipboard. (It will be something like \\arran.sms.ed.ac.uk\Home\s0123456)
7. Go to the appropriate link and follow the instructions: WINDOWS or MACINTOSH to open your M: Drive.

If you haven't already - make a shortcut to your university folder on your desktop, that way you can access it any time you are connected to either the VPN or the internet in University accommodation. :woo:

When I do 7. I keep getting redirected to a page that definitely doesn't show me how to open my M: Drive on my Mac?

Reply 10

Fwapper

OP

2

Rainfaery

When I do 7. I keep getting redirected to a page that definitely doesn't show me how to open my M: Drive on my Mac?

How annoying, the links have broken themselves :P I'll try and fix them.

Anyway here are some alternative instructions: (I haven't got a mac so they could be a bit wrong)

Go to:

- Finder > Go > Connect to Server
- Type \\arran.sms.ed.ac.uk\Home\s0123456 (or whatever yours was) into some field or other.
- Hit OK

Then tell me if it works so I can add it to the original post :P (You should see an empty folder pop up called s0123456 [or whatever])

OK just read the next post :yep:

Reply 11

Fwapper

OP

2

Rainfaery

When I do 7. I keep getting redirected to a page that definitely doesn't show me how to open my M: Drive on my Mac?

Ignore the last post :P

I've updated the original post to a stage where it probably works. The one possible problem is that I'm not sure whether the slashes in the Server Address box (smb:\\arran.sms.ed.ac.uk\home\s0654321) should be forward or backwards.

Have a go at that please and tell me what works :smile:

Reply 12

Rainfaery

12

Fwapper

Ignore the last post :P

I've updated the original post to a stage where it probably works. The one possible problem is that I'm not sure whether the slashes in the Server Address box (smb:\\arran.sms.ed.ac.uk\home\s0654321) should be forward or backwards.

Have a go at that please and tell me what works :smile:

I cannot find the connect to server option?

Reply 13

Fwapper

OP

2

Rainfaery

I cannot find the connect to server option?

Try pressing Command + K when the finder is open. Failing that...

This is the source website for what I'm saying.

It just says:
"Go to the Finder. Click on the Go menu and choose Connect to Server"

Sooo.... I'm a bit stuck otherwise.

Here's what the go menu looks like :P

Reply 14

Rian1988

14

Fwapper

Ignore the last post :P

I've updated the original post to a stage where it probably works. The one possible problem is that I'm not sure whether the slashes in the Server Address box (smb:\\arran.sms.ed.ac.uk\home\s0654321) should be forward or backwards.

Have a go at that please and tell me what works :smile:

Forward.

OP

Thankyoooooou!

Fwapper

Try pressing Command + K when the finder is open. Failing that...

This is the source website for what I'm saying.

It just says:
"Go to the Finder. Click on the Go menu and choose Connect to Server"

Sooo.... I'm a bit stuck otherwise.

Here's what the go menu looks like :P