This page contains guidance on how to access University applications and files from home.
Note: This page does not include information on how to use existing teaching and learning platforms to support online learning. View information about teaching online.
If you have been working from home for some time, continue what you've been doing! The only difference now is the potential need to make and receive telephone calls. Refer to the section on How do I get my desk phone to work from home?
Using a University provided laptop provides the easiest method of connectivity. Once connected to the internet, you will be able to use your University laptop, pretty much the same as when you are in the office. Most of your applications will just work.
For those applications that don't, just log on to the VPN and then they will. The VPN allows you to connect a device from anywhere, and make it appear as if you were connected from on campus, allowing you access to all the internal University's IT resources and services.
To set up your laptop to work as an extension of your desk phone, refer to the section on How do I get my desk phone to work from home?
Note: If you have dusted the cobwebs off a University laptop you've been storing in a cupboard, connect it to the University network before you take it home to check it is working as intended. If it has not been on the University network for a while, it will need and try to update itself with the latest versions/patches. Allow this to occur by leaving it on overnight. Doing this from home may not work and will take some time to occur on your home network.
This is almost as easy as using a University laptop.
Standard applications, including Office 365 applications, can be accessed from any device via your Flinders dashboard (Okta). To sign into your dashboard, go to https://flinders.okta.com
There is now an easy and secure method to access most University applications from your personal device using the Citrix Workspace application which allows you to log-in to a virtual workspace environment. The virtual workspace environment allows you to have access to your applications, including your U, S and R drives. The virtual workspace, accessed via the ‘Citrix Workspace’ application separates the University environment from your personal computer or laptop, which provides greater security for both the University and you.
Note: If your application does not appear in your virtual workspace, please raise a request with the IDS Service Desk. Installing new applications in the virtual workspace environment can take time. Requests for new applications will be prioritised based on business need.
To be able to make and receive telephone calls on your personal computer or laptop, you will need to download and install the Cisco Jabber application, which is the software version of your desk phone. Once installed and logged on, you can make and receive telephone calls on your personal computer or laptop. Refer to the section on How do I get my desk phone to work from home?
There are a plethora of PCs and laptops on the market and numerous types of operating systems. IDS will do its utmost to support you working from home on your personal computer or laptop. Still, there are no guarantees that your home computer will be compatible with University IT systems.
If you are using a personal device, it is important that you consider the security of your device. For more information, refer to Working securely from home.
IDS reserve the right to block your PC or laptop from accessing the University environment if it is found to be infected with a virus, malware etc. that may interfere with University IT systems. You have a responsibility to ensure your home PC and or laptop is kept up to date with respect to IT security.
Personal smartphone or tablet devices can be used to work from home, but they do have their obvious limitations. If you wish to receive emails on your mobile device or even access your other documents, we recommend you download and install the Office 365 mobile applications. These are available for Android and iOS devices.
Please do not take University desktop computers home with you.
Unfortunately, a University desktop cannot be used at home. Flinders University desktop computers are configured to work while connected to the Flinders network. Removing desktops from the network will likely cause a range of issues. Once removed from the network, desktop computers will not pick up vital configuration settings or security patches.
Please do not take your Flinders desktop computer home.
If you have a University issues laptop, please take this home with you. Staff should also consider taking home their laptop docking station and even monitors, mouse and keyboard to ensure a suitable home workspace can be set up.
If you do not have a University issued laptop, personal devices can be used to access your files and applications.
The University’s Service Desk will be in heavy demand during this difficult time, the following has been provided to allow you to understand and troubleshoot your home network and internet connection before contacting the IDS Service Desk.
The speed of your home internet connection can dramatically influence your experience when working from home. While the NBN has been deployed to most of the country, various connection types exist to individual homes. Some homes are fortunate to have Fibre to the Home (FTTH), which is considered the best type of connection you can get. The default connection to most homes is Fibre to the Node (FTTN) though. This is often located at the end of your street or between several streets. From the node to your home the connection runs along traditional copper telephone line, which results in a drop in performance. The primary difference between FTTH and FTTN is that there may be a drop in speed due to several factors such as the quality of the copper wiring and distance from the node.
Other connection types exist including Hybrid Fibre-Coaxial (HFC), Wireless Broadband, Fixed Wireless and Satellite. HFC is considered better than FTTN, as it uses the existing Foxtel cable into your premise. This cable is insulated better than the copper telephone line as such better speeds can be obtained. Fixed Wireless and Satellite are used where existing cabling does not exist.
Listed below are the connection types, in order of what generally provides the fastest speeds:
These different types of connections influence Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and the broadband plans they offer for each connection type. You would have purchased a broadband plan based on the connection type into your home and what broadband plan fits your needs and budget.
Hint: If you don’t have a fixed line internet service into your home, consider “hot spotting” to your mobile phone as a gateway to the internet. Be mindful of your data plan though!
Your plan will talk about download and upload speeds. Download speed refers to the theoretical maximum speed you can download date from your ISP to your home router. Upload speed refers to the theoretical maximum speed you can transfer data from your home router to your ISP. It is rare the advertised speeds from your ISP will be obtained. That is why ISPs are careful to ensure it is a “theoretical maximum” being advised.
Upload and download speeds can be influenced by the time of day. Speeds can be slower in the evening when most people are ‘surfing’ the internet. With the current situation across the world, more importantly South Australia and the government mandate to work from home during the day, speeds throughout the day and night will probably be affected. ISPs are working to ensure speeds are maintained 24 hrs a day, but they will fluctuate for numerous reasons. Generally, speeds should not vary considerably.
Once your ISP has supplied your internet connection and associated plan your physical connection (cable) will be plugged into your home router. While other connection methods exist, most home environments will use a home router. You can provide your own home router, or your ISP will supply this as part of the broadband plan you purchased. Your home router connects you to the internet and to all your devices within your home. Your devices can connect to your home router using a network cable or wirelessly. Cabled connections are more reliable and provide the best speeds. But wireless provides the convenience of not needing to use a network cable but comes at having to share the wireless network with other wireless devices, which can affect performance (speed), in turn your user experience.
Home routers provide various capabilities to allow a home network to be created, secured and maintained. It is basically your gateway to the internet. The home router can be a ’choke point’ if it becomes overloaded with too many devices and or network traffic generated by the devices connected to the home router.
More and more technologies are being connected to home routers and this should be a consideration when troubleshooting any issues with your internet connection. Technology such as desktop computers, laptops, smartphones and tablet devices. Don’t forget smart fridges, irrigation systems, gaming consoles, Smart TVs, home alarm systems, the list goes on. Smart homes are becoming more prevalent. Generally, many devices connected to a home router do not cause problems, but if one device is generating large amounts of traffic throughout your home network or to the internet, either planned or unplanned, this could unintentionally affect your experience when working from home.
Hint: Accessing the internet wirelessly from within the home is convenient, but it can be unstable sometimes. Troubleshooting wi-fi connectivity issues can be difficult. Certain devices in the home operate on the same frequency as your wireless connection, your microwave oven is one. Don’t place your home router on top of your Microwave oven, you’re likely to lose your Wi-Fi, when heating your food!
Generally, the devices within your home network that are likely to consume large amounts of data (traffic) and as result impact performance for all devices on your home network are:
These devices consume large amounts of data when updating their operating system, downloading and installing games or sometimes just general usage depending on the game and what the operator is doing when using the device, which could be streaming video or chatting with others online.
Like gaming devices, desktops and laptops at times will need to update with newer versions and or software updates/patches, which are necessary, but will impact performance. Using these devices to stream video or transfer large amounts of files / data from your home device to an online storage location (OneDrive for example) could also impact performance.
Televisions like other devices can now stream on-line media services such as movies and TV series. Some of these services are Netflix, Stan, Foxtel and Disney+. These streaming services are tuned to ensure consumption of traffic is minimised, but they remain one of the larger consumers of data (traffic) on your internet connection.
The above device/systems can potentially consume large amounts of data over your internet connection, more so if any of these activities are happening simultaneously. These activities could impact your user experience when working from home.
Hint: Imagine a water hose attached to a tap. Your ISP is the tap controlling the flow of water through the hose. The hose is the broadband connection into your home, it can come in various sizes. You can only fit so much water through the hose, before you need to open the tap more or eventually install a larger hose!
The following techniques have been provided to assist you with troubleshooting some of the more common issues you may have when working from home. If you find when working from home that you are unable to get to your resources at the University or accessing those resources is very slow, the following will help you to troubleshoot the problem yourself.
Attempt to connect to another website outside the University. For example www.google.com, www.microsoft.com or www.apple.com. If you are unable to access any of these sites, you most likely have lost your connection to the internet. There is multiple reason for this, but generally either your ISP has gone offline, something has happened to your home router or for some reason your device has disconnected from your home router, which is possible, especially with Wi-Fi. Try to access the internet from another device, if you can, the problem is with your device. If you are still unable to access the internet, try rebooting your home router. Turn it off, wait a few minutes and turn it back on. Wait for it to boot up, this generally takes a few minutes as it re-establishes a connection to your ISP. Then try accessing the internet again, you should be able to get back online. If you still cannot access the internet, reboot your device. If none of this works, contact your ISP for assistance.
Hint: If you have a mobile device that has its own data plan, you can use that device to check your ISP’s website to see if they have listed any outages in your area.
Speedtest.net is a website on the internet that allows you to see what your current upload and download speeds are to the internet, at the point in time you run the speed test. Anything above 15Mbps download and 10Mbps upload should allow a reasonable experience when working from home. If your broadband plan suggests you should be seeing better upload and download speeds, check that other devices within your home are not consuming large amounts of data, for example Xbox and or Play Station or Streaming Services such as Netflix or Stan. In other words – Check with your kids!
Your children can sometimes be better than Speedtest.net, they will let you know “pretty quickly” when performance is poor! Watch your kids, they may try to fix the problem themselves and not let you know they are rebooting the home router. Refer the section What is likely to affect your performance when working from home.
If you are unable to get to the speedtest.net website, you may be disconnected from the internet. Check another internet enabled device in your home to see if it can get to the internet.
This is a bit more techie, if you know how to bring up a command prompt, run the following:
Type “ping www.microsoft.com” – hit enter. If you receive either "Ping request could not find host"…" or "Destination host unreachable" or "Request timed out" message, you more than likely 'don't have a connection to the internet. Refer section "Check your internet connection"
If the ping test is successful, you have a connection to the internet. The result can also be used to provide an indication of performance. The below screenshot is a successful ping test to www.microsoft.com. Notice the "time=XXms" section. This indicates the "round trip" the ping command took to get to the www.microsoft.com website and return to the computer. This is measured in milliseconds. If this is taking longer than 300ms to 500ms you probably have a performance problem.
Refer the section What is likely to affect your performance when working from home.
If the above steps have not resolved your internet connection issues, please contact your internet service provider. If you still have further issues, please contact the IDS Service Desk and the team will endeavour to support you the best we can.
If you have been unsuccessful troubleshooting your issues yourself or for any other technical issues, don't hesitate to contact the IDS ServiceDesk. Please provide the ServiceDesk the following:
Cisco Jabber can be used to extend your desk phone to your laptop or mobile devices seamlessly. Jabber is the software version (softphone) equivalent of your telephone on your desk. Jabber will use the built-in microphone, speakers and webcam (optional) installed within your laptop. If you are using your own PC / laptop, your device will need these capabilities.
A headset is only required if you require privacy or need to block out background noise during your calls. This may be an important consideration working from home, especially if you have children at home too.
Jabber can be installed on a personal desktop and mobile device. Once installed you will be able to search the University phone directory, make voice or video calls to colleagues and send instant messages.
If you wish to use Jabber on your mobile device, log a request with the Service Desk. IDS need to configure Jabber specifically for your model phone, either Android or iPhone.
Hint: If you have poor video and audio while using Cisco Jabber, turn off the video as this will improve the audio quality. Poor video and audio quality may occur over the VPN, but also could be influenced by the capacity of your internet connection and or broadband plan.
Forwarding your call from your desk phone to your mobile phone is not recommended. It will cost the University 10c per minute, per phone call. Forwarding to your home phone is also not recommended, while it will only be the cost of a local call, this option does not prevent you from receiving calls both day and night.
Forwarding to your mobile or home phone does have further implications, as follows:
Working from home creates new collaborating challenges for us all. The loss of human contact means our communication and collaboration tools are more important than ever. Information and Digital Services support a number of tools that will help you keep in contact and work remotely with your teammates, colleagues or even external parties to the University.
Teams is a fully supported Microsoft Office 365 application that is designed to support collaborative working around shared files and documents. You can use Teams to video or audio call colleagues and chat via instant messaging. As an Office 365 application, Teams is heavily integrated with OneDrive, Outlook and other Office document applications such as Word, Excel, etc.
Hint: Schedule a video conference Microsoft Teams meeting directly in your Outlook calendar by using the ‘New Team Meeting’ button found in the Home command ribbon.
Teams can be accessed from your Office 365 chicklet in your Flinders dashboard (Okta), or via a desktop app. A mobile app is also available for Android and iOS phones.
WebEx Meetings is a fully supported Flinders application suitable for when a larger number of people wish to meet in the virtual world. You can use video, audio and chat and share your files for collaboration purposes. WebEx Meetings is integrated with meeting room systems for those staff who may be on campus (remember social distancing).
Although video conference features are similar to Microsoft Teams, there are some key features differences between these applications. WebEx Meetings may be a more suitable platform for large group video conferencing as it can support up to 1000 participants.
While staff can use a range of freely available communication and collaboration tools, the tools listed above are University supported applications. Third-party applications, such as Zoom, are not supported by Information and Digital Services or the vendor through contractual support arrangements. Support requests for unsupported applications can only be dealt with on a best endeavours basis.
Priority support will be given to queries regarding our supported applications.
Flinders provides several options for the storage of files and documents. You may be use to storing files and documents across a range of Flinders supported storage locations, including U, S and R network drives which store your files on campus, or in OneDrive or Teams cloud storage sites.
In most instances, you do not need to move your files and documents to a new location to access them from home. Files and documents stored on campus can still be access from home. If you are unsure of the most suitable files storage solution to use, please see our data storage options page for further details on the options available to you.
Guidance is provided below on how to access your files from home. If you require further guidance on how to access your files from home, please contact the IDS Service Desk.
OneDrive is a Microsoft Office 365 cloud hosted document storage solution available to all staff. Files and documents are stored in your personal OneDrive folder, or in shared OneDrive folders, which can be accessed from a Flinders issued laptop, personal PC/Laptop or mobile device.
If you store your files and documents in OneDrive, you can continue to do so.
OneDrive data storage caveats:
Teams is a Microsoft Office 365 application that is designed to support collaborative working around shared files and documents. While Teams has many features to support communication, it can also be used to store documents that need to be shared be a team. Shared files are documents can be easily access via the Files tab in Teams.
Teams data storage caveats:
The U, S and R network drives are hosted in the University's data centres. Accessing these is only possible while the virtual private network (VPN) connection is operating. The VPN connection provides staff direct access to your usual network drives, even while off-campus. Once the VPN connection is made, you will be able to access your files as you would do normally.
The VPN can be accessed from all University issued devices by opening the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client.
If you experience any issues with the VPN, please contact the IDS Service Desk.
COVID-19 forces us to change some of our work practices. However, the standard requirement to manage our business records appropriately has not changed, so please continue to do so according to standard practices wherever possible.
The Records Management team within the Library are here to support you with this. In response to several questions we have received, we provide the following additional information.
Key points:
Video conferencing works best when you have a webcam and headset. If you require the use of a webcam or headset while working from home, we recommend that you take your University provided webcam or headset home with you.
Headsets are not necessary to use Jabber. Headsets are only required to provide privacy and to block out background noise.
Below are five simple steps to working securely. These steps will not only help secure your work, but they will make you and your family far safer as you create a cyber secure home.
Further guidance on information security, including some of the topics covered below, can be found on our information security page.
First and foremost, technology alone cannot fully protect you – you are the best defence. Attackers have learned that the easiest way to get what they want is to target you, rather than your computer or other devices. If they want your password, work data or control of your computer, they’ll attempt to trick you into giving it to them, often by creating a sense of urgency. For example, they can call you pretending to be Microsoft technical support and claim that your computer is infected. Or perhaps they send you an email warning that a package could not be delivered, fooling you into clicking on a malicious link. The most common indicators of a social engineering attack include:
Almost every home network starts with a wireless (wi-fi) network. This is what enables all of your devices to connect to the Internet. Most home wireless networks are controlled by your Internet/home router or a separate, dedicated wireless access point. Both work in the same way: by broadcasting wireless signals to which home devices connect. This means securing your wireless network is a key part of protecting your home. We recommend the following steps to secure it:
Ask your Internet Service Provider (ISP), check their website, check the documentation that came with your wireless access point or refer to the vendor's website.
When a site is not protected with Okta, it may ask you to create a password. Create a strong password and do not reuse passwords: the more characters it has, the stronger it is. Using a passphrase is one of the simplest ways to ensure that you have a strong password. A passphrase is nothing more than a password made up of multiple words, such as “bee honey bourbon.” Using a unique passphrase means using a different one for each device or online account. This way if one passphrase is compromised, all of your other accounts and devices are still safe.
Make sure each of your computers, mobile devices, programs and apps are running the latest version of its software. Cyber attackers are constantly looking for new vulnerabilities in the software your devices use. When they discover vulnerabilities, they use special programs to exploit them and hack into the devices you are using. Meanwhile, the companies that created the software for these devices are hard at work, fixing them by releasing updates. By ensuring your computers and mobile devices install these updates promptly, you make it much harder for someone to hack you.
To stay current, simply enable automatic updating whenever possible. This rule applies to almost any technology connected to a network, including not only your work devices but Internet-connected TV’s, baby monitors, security cameras, home routers, gaming consoles or even your car.
Something you most likely don’t have to worry about at the office is children, guests or other family members using your work laptop or other work devices. Make sure family and friends understand they cannot use your work devices, as they can accidentally erase or modify information, or, perhaps even worse, accidentally infect the machine.
Multi-factor authentication (sometimes also called two-step verification) has been enabled for all staff FAN accounts as an additional security measure to protect staff and the University. When accessing Flinders applications or your Flinders dashboard (Okta), you will be prompted to authenticate your account with an additional authentication step.
When working off-campus, your account access experience may be different from what you are used to. On-campus, staff are required to authenticate your account just once per device/browser. However, when working off-campus, staff are required to verify access more frequently. Authentication is required once per device/browser, each week.
If you experience any issues with MFA, please contact the IDS Service Desk.
During the University's transition back to working on campus IDS will have limited support staff available on campus. As such, staff returning to work should first attempt to setup their computer equipment in their office on their own. We will do our best to follow up on requests where people are having issues reconnecting their equipment in as timely a manner as possible.
Client Services have a very limited stock of cables and equipment and so cannot replace equipment, cables or adaptors that have gone missing or are damaged, this will be the responsibility of the individual/department to replace.
Below are some step by step instructions with pictures on how to reconnect your PC.
Laptop users will need to plug their docking station into a power point by using a power supply and plugging one end into the power point and the other circular end into the docking station.
Desktop users will plug the power cable into the power point and then their PC using the following cable (IEC lead).
When connecting your monitors back up, you may have a variety of cables, but you should only need the ones that you had previously. One end of the cables will plug into your monitor(s) and the other end will either go into the back of your desktop or docking station. See the different types of monitor connections so that you can identify the cables you have and where to reconnect them.
The most common connections are VGA, DVI and HDMI (image below)
Other types of monitor connections are Display Port and USB-C (image below)
Network cables will only ever plug into one connection in your docking station or PC, and should be plugged in in the following ways:
Scenario 1
Cable 1 – Network cable connects from wall port to telephone.
Cable 2 – Network cable connects from the second port in the telephone to the Docking station or desktop.
Scenario 2
Cable 1 - Network cable connects from wall port directly to your docking station or desktop.
Your keyboard and mouse will plug into your docking station or desktop via the rectangular USB plugs.
Opening hours: 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays
After hours or when all staff are busy you will be given an option to leave a voicemail message. Voicemails will be accessed as soon as practical during business hours otherwise you may choose to log an IT support request.
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