Working from home

Before you attempt a remote desktop connection to your office PC you must make sure that the office PC is set up to receive a remote desktop connection. This step must be undertaken while you are on campus and logged on to your work PC (somebody else can't do this for you - it must be done under your login).

• Configure Remote Desktop on your office PC
  • You can configure remote desktop by clicking Start> Settings> Control Panel> Run Advertised Programs> Select "University of Stirling RemoteDesktop 1.0 - RDTSetup*" > click run> click "Run all programs automatically...." > Click Download. *On Windows 7, the program is called 'Remote desktop - enable'
  • This will configure your office PC for Remote desktop.
• Set your PC's power options to prevent the computer hibernating (Windows 7 PCs only)
  • Windows 7 machines are set to a power saving plan to allow the university to save electricity. If you wish to remote desktop, you will have to change the power settings to make sure your PC doesn't go into hibernation when you are away from the office and wanting to access it from off campus. To change your power plan, go into Control Panel and select Power Options, tick the button next to 'Remote desktop'. If you can't see the Remote desktop plan, click the down arrow next to 'show additional plans'
• Take a note of your Office PC's Full Computer Name
  • You will need to know the full computer name of your office PC to connect to it via RDC from home. To determine this Right click on My Computer > select Properties > Select the Name tab or on Windows 7, scroll down to see the section 'computer name..'. Next to Full Computer Name : you will find a long string something like: STR0007E9966E8A.ad.stir.ac.uk This uniquely identifies your PC on the network. You will need to keep a full note of this. You can however just left click and drag to select this string and copy it.
• Leave your Office PC switched on. You can lock your PC or log it off but it must be switched on.

Install the CampusNet software on your home PC. You can download CampusNet from the 'Working at Stirling' tab in the portal (more info). For the RDC software to work correctly you need to be securely connected to the University network using CampusNet.

If you have a third party non-Windows firewall installed you will need to consult its instructions for details of how to enable outgoing Remote Desktop traffic.

1. Connect to CampusNet

2. Once CampusNet is successfully connected, Open up the Remote Desktop Connection program:

Windows XP:Start >Programs >Accessories >Communications > Remote Desktop Connection

Windows Vista:Start >All Programs >Accessories >Remote Desktop Connection

Windows 7:click on the start menu, type 'Remote desktop connection.' When you've located it, right click on Remote Desktop connection and select 'send to desktop' to create a desktop shortcut.

Apple Mac: Go to http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads and click on the 'Remote Desktop' link and then click on 'Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.1.1' to download the software. Once downloaded and installed, you can locate this in your applications folder.

The following or similar logon screen appears:

(If you click the Options button you can configure some settings to enhance the connection experience and to configure the connection speed to match the connection speed you are using to access the internet. If you want to be able to copy and paste files between your home and office PC under the Options tab called Local Resources tick the checkbox Diskdrives (Drives on VISTA) . Under the General tab there is a Save As option which you can use to create a shortcut of your connection settings to your home desktop).

3. To connect to your Office PC, type the Full Computer Name (ie STR0007E9966E8A.ad.stir.ac.uk) of your office PC in the Computer field of the RDC logon window and click Connect. On VISTA you may be asked 'Do you trust this remote connection' > select YES and check 'don't ask me again for remote connections to this computer'. Click Connect to continue. VISTA may then present a warning message stating 'the identity of the remote computer cannot be verified. Do you want to connect anyway?'. Say YES to this and check the 'don't show this warning again for connections to this remote computer' box.

4. You will be presented with a network logon window. Just use your regular network account details making sure you are logging onto the STIRLAN domain. You will now connect to your Office PC and all its features will be available to you.

5. When you are finished your session, you can log off your RDC by selecting the close icon - the x - in the RDC bar at the top of your RDC window.