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Vol. 6, No. 2
Spring/Summer 2006

The Newsletter of the Office of Library and Information Technology

In this issue of
Bibliofiles...
VPN Arrives This Fall
Literary Festival
Symposium Success
Farewell...
Diane Snedden
Rebecca Miller
Class of '06
Introducing...
Donnie

Virtual Private Network
for All this Fall

What's VPN?
No, it's not the latest Cable TV station.
It's much better than that.
Virtual Private Network (VPN) is software that allows a verified user to connect to the campus network from any computer with an Internet connection.
What does this mean for faculty and students?
Dorm networks will require the VPN software to access the network.
This will prevent rogue use of our network, and reduce the impact of virus attacks.
Without VPN, networked software and folders (such as Moodle) cannot be viewed.
Faculty will not need to download the software when using a desktop or laptop computer that is on campus.
However, faculty can choose to download the software to a home computer or laptop in order to easily access online journals, research databases, Moodle, and even files stored on the College server, all while off-campus.
No need to type in a 14-digit barcode number
Faculty and commuter students who frequently do research from off-campus will find that the VPN software (a product of Cisco Systems) is much more user-friendly than using passwords and barcode numbers for authentification. After the initial download and installation process,★ should you need to access a database at any point while working at your computer,
just click:  Start | All Programs | Cisco Systems VPN Client | VPN Client,
and a window will appear with the first icon being a Connect option.
Click it, and that's it.
You're in.

If you prefer, you can make a shortcut to VPN on your desktop, system tray, or Start Menu.

So you left it at the office.

No problem.
Access your U: drive from home, now that you have VPN set up.
Follow the simple steps below if you have a PC running Windows XP and VPN installed.

  1. Open the "My Computer" window.
  2. Click: Tools > Map Network Drive
  3. Select a Drive letter (perhaps "U" to match the drive on which your files are located on the College server).
  4. In the Folder box, type:
    \\dfsservices.lakeforest.edu\facstaffhome$\username\
    where "username" is your username.
  5. Click the link for "Connect using a different user name."
    Type your username and password.
  6. Click Finish.

As with the installation and set-up of VPN, you will only need to Map to the Network Drive the first time you access it from a computer.
However, you will need to re-enter your network (email) password if you have rebooted your computer since the last time you accessed your files on the College network from home.

If you need further assistance with setting up or using the VPN software or access to your networked files, just call the Help Desk at x3456 and a friendly voice will talk you through the process.





★ For detailed instructions on downloading and installing VPN to a PC,
download this MS Word document:
vpn_install.doc

Or, for a Mac or a computer running Linux, use the links provided at lakeforest.edu/vpn/