While outside the campus, users can have remote access to a number of services. With Internet connection, it does not only allow you to surf the web, you can also access your campus services like emails at home and transfer files between your home PC and the network drives (N: drive or S: drive) easily. If you have a UNIX account, you can also use software to connect to the corresponding UNIX servers to update web pages.

  1. Accessing Email Outside Campus
  2. Access restricted IT services with VPN
  3. Accessing Network Drives Outside Campus
  4. Virtual Desktop Services (VDI) Staff Only
  5. Remote access my office computer at home Staff Only
  6. Schedule an online teaching/meeting

 

 


1. Accessing Email Outside Campus

A simple way to get access to your emails outside the campus is to use our Webmail service (https://webmail.eduhk.hk). All you need is a PC connected to the Internet and a web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer). It requires no special setup and you can check your emails easily at home, in Cybercafe, at conference meeting, overseas, etc. Staff may also use MS Outlook for accessing emails.

Staff can use Outlook at home/quarters as secure as in the office by setting a Outlook profile. For details, please refer to "Microsoft Outlook Profile".

Besides, you can set up your mobile device to access your office 365 account. Thus, you can read your email and calendar any where. For details, please visit Synchronizing Email and Calendar with your Mobile Devices (for STAFF).

For more information about our email services, please refer to the document on "Email Services for Staff" or "Email Services for Students".

 


2. Access restricted IT services with VPN

With Virtual Private Network (VPN), staff and students can make secure connection from their home computers or mobile devices to the campus network over the Internet. Data transmitted via VPN connection are encrypted. Users can access certain restricted IT services such as DMS, use SPSS, and make connection to some central network servers using SFTP client software outside the campus. For details, please visit "VPN Service".

 


3. Accessing Network Drives Outside Campus

Users can access the network drives (e.g. the personal network N: drive or the S: drive for sharing among staff in the same department) even if they are not in the campus. All you need is a VPN connected PC. When a VPN connection is made, you may use SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) software, e.g. WinSCP, to get access to the network drive. For details, please visit "FAQ: How to make secure connection to a FTP server (SFTP) using WinSCP?".

Besides, you may consider to save your non-confidential documents on Microsoft OneDrive. OneDrive is a cloud storage provided under the Office 365 services. Files saved on OneDrive can be access from any where as long as you have internet access. For details, please visit Microsoft Office 365.

 


4. Virtual Desktop Service (VDI)

The virtual desktop service, generally referred as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), allows users to access another operating system without altering the settings on their own computers. VDI is particularly useful when you are in situations like:

  1. Away from the campus but want to access the Windows environment similar to our office desktop.
  2. Access legacy Windows environment to run certain systems/software packages which are not compatible with the current Windows desktop.

With VDI services, only the screen on the virtual desktop is sent to the user’s local PC/notebook and no data will be stored on the local machine. After you finish using the “virtual desktop”, you could simply log off the service. In a nutshell, your local machine becomes a dumb terminal and all the processing is run on the virtual machines in our servers within the campus.

For details, please visit "Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)".

 

 


5. Remote access my office computer at home

Staff who need to have remote access to their office computer at home. They can make use of the "Remote Desktop Connect (RDP) app". For details, please visit "FAQ: How can I remote access my office computer?" (Login required).

 


6. Schedule an online teaching/meeting

If you have difficulties on setting up face-to-face class or meeting. You can consider to schedule an online class or meeting. EdUHK members are eligible to use one of the online meeting tools called "Zoom" and "Skype for Business (SfB)". For details, please visit "Online Meeting Tool - Zoom" and "FAQ: How to schedule an online meeting using Skype for Business?".