Many of you are familiar with Novell's method of accessing files remotely using a web browser and connecting via http://novell.umbc.edu Unfortunately, Microsoft's Active Directory does not provide the same web based access. However, there are two options available to those that require access to files from off campus.
OIT has two recommendations for remote file access:
UMBC Owned Machine in Active Directory
This is for UMBC machines, typically laptops, that have been joined to Active Directory. In this scenario access if you have a decent Internet connection (e.g. DSL, Cable Modem etc.) file access performance should be good. This is the preferred method of connecting as OIT can provide a level of security assurance that can't be provided for Non UMBC machines.
You will log into your machine as usual. Then you will login into the VPN Client. From there you can simply access your drives as you normally would from work.
Non UMBC Machine
This would typically be a home machine or any other machine that is not UMBC owned and is not in Active Directory. Due to naming conflict concerns Non UMBC machines will not be joined to Active Directory.
The good news is that there is a simple way to access your files remotely using the Windows XP Remote Desktop Connection
Please Click Here for documentation on how to use this type of connection. This remote service will be available to users by the end of the migration this weekend.