How do I access university resources from off-campus?

Overview

This article instructions on and troubleshooting information for accessing university resources from off-campus.

Accessing university resources off-campus

To access some university resources from outside the UIC campus network, you will need to utilize the UIC Virtual Private Network (VPN) service. We provide instructions on obtaining, installing, and using the VPN client for several platforms, including Windows and MacOS.

Some unit-specific resources, such as your office desktop or a departmental file share, may have an additional level of security and require that you be granted access. Your unit IT personnel control access to unit-specific resources - please contact them for access. If you are having trouble accessing university resources after following those instructions, please see the below:

  • The default General-Use group in the VPN client is intended for use with general university and department resources. Please ensure you are connecting to the General-Use group in the VPN client, instead of the Library-Resources group.
    • If you are able to connect to the General-Use group, but cannot access a University-wide resource (such as Banner), please email consult@uic.edu, providing any identifying information you have for the resource you are trying to access (e.g. website URL).

    • If you are able to connect to the General-Use group, but cannot access a department resource (such as a file share or remote desktop to your work machine), please contact your department IT staff to ensure you have been granted access to your department's network (Please note that having access with the former OpenVPN solution does not ensure you will have access in the new AnyConnect solution).

    • If you can't connect to the General-Use group, are you able to authenticate to other UIC resources, such as Blackboard (uic.blackboard.com)?
      • If so, please verify you are logging in to the VPN client properly, by reviewing How do I log in to the UIC VPN?. If you continue to have trouble logging into the VPN client, please email us at consult@uic.edu.
      • If you are not able to login to other UIC resources, it sounds like there may be a problem with your UIC NetID or credentials. Please visit our password change/recovery tool. Once you have recovered or changed your password, please try accessing the VPN client again.

  • The Library-Resources group in the VPN client is only intended for use when accessing specific UIC Library electronic collection resources that are restricted to the UIC network. You will generally not need to utilize this group, but please note that when you do, you will not be able to access other protected university resources - you will need to be connected to the General-Use group for those resources.
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