What is VPN and why would I want to have it?

Intended Audience

Someone who sees they can request VPN access but doesn't know what it is or how it is used.

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network.

Connecting with VPN software simply allows your computer to connect to the CW network from elsewhere.  This is particularly helpful for someone working from home or traveling offsite.  As you can imagine, being on the CW network allows one’s computer to “see” servers that are on the CW network.  Your computer cannot use applications hosted on CW servers without being on the VPN or physically being at CWF. 

Once on our network, there are many things you can do you couldn’t do before.  For example:

  • Visit our Intranet site:  http://intranet
  • Visit our Employee Directory:  http://employeedirectory
  • Submit requests for additional access through the Employee Directory using the My System Access button.
  • Access software systems hosted here, and there are many, but as an example:
    • Methos application which is in our Mainframe (iSeries AS/400).  Methos is used to order office supplies.
  • Connect to printers on our network.  If this is necessary, I suggest adding it to your computer by simply browsing our print server (see link) and double clicking the printer you require:  \\printserve12012.  This might be useful if she is printing something next to a CW employee she works with.
  • Accessing Network Shares:  To be able to gain permissions to a shared folder in our network file servers, a System Access Request does need to be submitted. 

If you still need more help and understanding about using VPN, you may submit an IT Support ticket by completing a service request at: http://itsupport.cwf.org.  This site also has a Bits and Wisdom link to look up IT How-To and Troubleshooting documents.

Special Note:

If you are at home, and you have a network connection to other devices around your home, such as a wireless printer, or an Apple TV, those will be blocked from your computer while your VPN session is connected.  This is intentional because of the nature of what a VPN is intended to do.  It is intended to keep others devices on your network to “see” the data you are privy to while on the CW network.

Installing and Using VPN