Remote Access to IT Services

This page aims to list the most common forms of remote access to different services within the department with links to further information as required. The listings are typically in order of ease of use, the first being the easiest although the other options may have different benefits at the expense of some ease.

Note: In order to use the Remote Access Portal (RAP) you need to have JRE installed on your computer. Usually this will already be installed, but if not please install JRE from here first.

Applications

Note this is typically a full remote session in which you can run any application, including accessing your email and files, as if in the department

To use applications available on the maths systems options include:

• Graphical applications typically require a full remote session:
  • Connection using the Remote Access Portal (RAP) - simple web based solution that provides links to access Windows and Linux terminal servers remotely (the links configure suitable ssh tunnels and run NXclient or an RDP client automatically for you, if you are a Windows, Linux or Mac OS X user)
  • Connection via an SSH tunnel:
    • Remote Linux session - recommend using NXclient which allows you to connect to any Linux desktop or compute server within the department
    • Remote Windows session - using an RDP client to connect to the departmental terminal server machine called wts
• Text only based applications - make an ssh connection and run the application as normal (of course text applications can be accessed via a full graphical remote session)
  • Using GNU Screen to initiate, disconnect and re-connect to long-running jobs or applications at a later time.

Email

To access your email remotely options include:

• Access via a web browser - easy to do, requires just a web browser and no special setup
• IMAPS and SMTP connection - uses a normal mail client, e.g. Thunderbird, Outlook, pine etc and can give you more functionality than a web only interface
• SSH connection and text based mail client - i.e. using pine or mutt etc after sshing to the maths system
• Outlook Anywhere to connect to Exchange - only relevant to those with email on the Exchange server (mainly admin staff)
• Full remote session running whatever mail client you would use when working in the department - see the Applications section below

Files

To get at your files remotely options include:

• Use the Remote Access Portal (RAP) - simple web based solution that provides links within the Network Places section listed in its left panel (this provides access to home and shared directories)
• Network file transfer - using an scp or sftp client
• Access via a VPN connection - follow the instructions to establish a VPN connection and then access the services as you would if using a laptop within the department
• Full remote session running applications as you would when working in the department - see the Applications section below

Journals

Access to many journals is restricted to computers within the university. If you are outside the university you need suitably tunnelled remote access:

• OxLip+ - use your university Single-Sign-On credentials to access this page from outside the university and gain access to journal resources
• Google Scholar Find it @ Oxford - Links to full text of available articles generated automatically for Oxford users (if outside OU internet domain, set Oxford as member library in your Google Scholar preferences)
• Use the Remote Access Portal (RAP) - simple web based solution that provides links within the Web Forwards section listed in its left panel (this forwards/proxys your connection giving you journal access)
• Make a VPN connection - this routes your network connection via the department and thus allows access to online journals
• Run a complete remote session as described above for applications. The web browser running in the remote session is then of course within the university and can access the online journals