COVID-19 Remote Working

COVID-19 has forced some of our staff to need to work remotely. This area will capture pertinent information to make your work away from campus easier.

Remote Working Introduction

In response to COVID-19 and the continued restrictions on campus, IT Services has put together some remote work options for various groups on campus. This area gathers together helpful information on what you can do while you are off campus and how to accomplish those tasks.

Support Options

While it is nice to be able to drop in and talk with IT Services personnel, now that we are apart (even if only for a short time) we are looking at revamping our support options to better be able to serve remote employees and students.

As such, it is recommended that you utilize the Martin Luther College Support page to send a support request in or email support@mlc-wels.edu to do the same. This will allow us to easily assign issues to the right person or schedule a time when we can talk or meet with you remotely to handle your support case.

Stay tuned for more information on possible revised hours of operation as well.

Remote Work Resources

Martin Luther College

Connecting to the VPN

Some of your work will require you to connect to the Martin Luther College network here on campus and in order to accomplish that, your machine will need to initiative a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection. This process creates a secure, private "tunnel" between your computer and the network at MLC.

You can view a video on how to connect and disconnect or read the instructions below. In order to follow these instructions you will need to receive permission from the MLC Human Resources office and have your device setup by MLC IT Services.

Connecting to the VPN

  1. Find the OpenVPN GUI client icon in the Windows taskbar at the lower right of your screen. You may need to click the Show hidden icons arrow to get it to show up.
    VPN1.png
  2. Right click on the OpenVPN GUI client icon and left click on Connect.
    VPN2.png
  3. Enter your MLC Account username and password into the resulting login box and click OK. The OpenVPN log messages and connection screen should disappear when the connection has been made.
    VPN3.png

Disconnecting from the VPN

  1. Find the OpenVPN GUI client icon in the Windows taskbar at the lower right of your screen. You may need to click the Show hidden icons arrow to get it to show up. The icon should now be green.
    VPN1.png
  2. Right click on the OpenVPN GUI client icon and left click on Disconnect.
    VPN5.png

Checking the Status of the VPN

You have a couple of options for checking the status of your VPN connection. In each case, find the OpenVPN GUI client icon in the Windows taskbar. You may need to click the Show hidden icons arrow to get it to show up.

If you have issues at any time, please contact MLC IT Services.

Connecting to Your MLC Computer

In order to get your work done, especially if you need to connect to the database, you need to connect to your computer still at Martin Luther College. Remember, the first step is always to connect via VPN to Martin Luther College. Before you can connect to your computer at Martin Luther College, you will need to have that connection setup by staff from IT Services. If that is not done, contact MLC IT Services.

Connect to Your Computer

Remember, you need to have an active VPN connection to Martin Luther College before attempting to connect to your computer. You can find videos below for both types of setups.

  1. Double-click the connection profile on your desktop. It should automatically connect to your desktop, otherwise enter in the password provided by IT Services when prompted.
  2. You should now be logged into the computer and see either the desktop of the virtual machine we have setup for you or the OES Network login screen like you would if you were sitting at your desk:
    1. I see the desktop of the virtual machine. Now what?
    2. I see the OES Network login screen. Now what?

Virtual Machine Desktop

Before you can connected to the Campuse-wide Database, you will need to first log into the OES Client. You can also watch this video to see how to do it.

  1. Find the Client for Open Enterprise Server icon in the Windows taskbar at the lower right of your screen. You may need to click the Show hidden icons arrow to get it to show up.
  2. Right click on the icon and left-click on OES Login....
  3. Enter your MLC Account username and password and click OK.

You should now be logged into the OES Network on campus and be able to access any files and/or databases that you would need to work with.

OES Login Prompt

You can treat this prompt just like you would if you were to log into your workstation at MLC. You can also watch this video to see how to do it.

  1. Enter your MLC Account username and password and press the Enter key. Your machine should log in and you should be set to go.

There are no additional steps. You should now be logged into your machine at Martin Luther College and be able to carry out any duties you need to.

Disconnect from Your Computer

When you are done working on your computer at Martin Luther College, you need to click the X on the top of the screen on the blue toolbar.

If you have any questions, please contact MLC IT Services.

Keeping In Touch

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing is an important way that teams of people at MLC continue to keep in contact with one another while working remotely. However, there are some things to keep in mind when attempting to keep in touch with each other in this way:

There are any number of video conferencing platforms you may be able to use with your team:

Team Chat

Text-based communication has the benefit of being asynchronous so that team members are able to read and respond when it is convenient for them. Text-based communication is also very light on bandwidth usage and so is very effective no matter what type of connection to the internet you may have. Here are some options you have while working remotely:

If you have any additional questions or needs, please reach out to IT Services.