VPN setup

[farquea]

Our off site support company have setup a VPN. It is a cisco client but all that happens is that you make the connection then have to open up a window and browse to the location of the file you want by typing in the exact folder location of where it is hosted.

 

This is unrealistic to ask staff to start typing in addresses such as \\networkdrivex\user.name\work etc

 

So for the moment its not being used. When they said they would be setting it up i imagine some sort of simple user interface maybe that the user logins into and then it takes them to their workspace and from there they can easily access other areas such as shared drives.

 

Having not really worked with VPN's much before i dont really know what the front end's of should or could be made to look like, is what i imagined to be done possible or if you can let me know how other schools have setup in place to allow users to work access work from home that would be great.

[bladedanny]

Possibly not the solution you are looking far, but instead of asking the member of staff to type in the path could you not create a shortcut that links to the correct file path?

 

Hope this helps,

 

Dan

Edited September 29, 2009 by bladedanny
Spelling Corrections

[plexer]

If it allows direct connection to unc's like that then staff's normal logon script could be used to map drives just as if they were in school?

 

Can the client not run a script after connection?

 

Ben

[dobsonl]

Unfortunatly our LEA make us use Cisco for our VPN.

 

There is an option in the client that allows an application to run once connected. This can be found under options and then application launcher.

 

You may be able to write a batch file or something like that to map the UNC path as a network drive like they have in school from that option.

[farquea]

I'm afraid i might not be able to answer very well as like i said ive little or no previous experience of dealing with VPN's.

 

We were literally just given a folder with a cisco setup installer and some instructions of how to connect using the client. Once you are connected it just informs you and thats it, nothing else. If it were possible to map the drives once connected by using their logon so that all the school drives and their work space is mapped so that they just need to open My Computer like they would in school, that would be ideal. How easy/difficult would that be to do?

[Fuzzz]

Can't the users browse the network with the 'Network'-icon in Windows (or whatever name it has in whatever windows-version)

[dyoung5]

Our LEA has done the same thing, and its a complete joke. We have the Cisco VPN Client, and also WebVPN. The VPN Client is a pain to get staff to setup, the WebVPN is a bit easier.

 

But when they are connected, they get nothing automatically. Also, DNS lookup doesn't work. For the few staff who use it, the just remote desktop to their PCs once connected. They have to enter 2 passwords to get in, their "USO" password to get into the VPN and their network password to get onto the computer. I have resisted setting up more users, as it is such a hassel from our end.

 

Not to mention that WebVPN doesn't support anything higher than XP, and the client doesn't support 64bit, so I can't access it from my PC, and have to use my netbook, argh.

[stevenjones18]

Hi im new to this webiste but i do use the CISCO VPN client on my schools network, when the client is installed on a (laptop) you can set the client to run at windows logon so when the user goes to type in their username and password assuming the user has a roaming profile on the network they should receive any network drives and network my documents folders. When you have changed the client to run at windows start up if the user has used a wireless connection e.g. at home on the laptop before the client loads up and the user can press connect which will create the connection from the laptop to the school network when they have authenticated with their user credentials in the client and the connection is established they can then proceed to login to windows.

 

hope this helps, if ive confused you slightly its possible to send some screen prints of this process to you sometime in the future

 

Steven