How do I transparently access my “home” folder remotely?

If you would like to access your HY LAN folders from outside the university network (e.g. from home or a mobile device), it can be done easily:

You need to use OpenVPN (with HYVPN settings) to connect to the intranet. (OpenVPN instructions are available only in Finnish at the IT pages.)

Once connected you can “mount” your home folder easily, at the “MS-DOS” command prompt by typing

net use r: /persistent:no \\cella.ad.helsinki.fi\home\u#\u\username /user:ATKK\username

replacing username and u with your username and the first letter of your username respectively. is a number as given at  the IT support pages.You can replace r with whatever drive letter you want the folder to be mounted as, as long as the drive name is not already in use (it is best to use “high” letters).

It is also easy to mount your web pages (at http://www.mv.helsinki.fi/username/) by typing at the “MS-DOS” command prompt:

net use w: /persistent:no \\cella.ad.helsinki.fi\w1\username /user:ATKK\username

replacing username and u with your username and the first letter of your username respectively. You can replace w with whatever drive letter you want the folder to be mounted as, as long as the drive name is not already in use (it is best to use “high” letters).

Of course one can create batch files for with these commands to save typing (just write them to a text file, e.g. with Notepad, and save the file with a name ending in .cmd or .bat. 😉

To un-mount or disconnect the folder use:

net use r: /delete
where r is the drive that you want to disconnect.

It is also possible to achieve the same result through Windows 7 menus. For making a “network folder” available as a “drive” use Computer > Map network drive , filling the information as above and making sure to tick the box next to “Connect using different credentials”. To remove it use Computer > Disconnect network drive.

There are instructions for accessing the home folder from iPad in a nicely written pdf with instructions for using iPad for medical students!

For OS X and Linux, as I do not have access to these OSs at the moment, I cannot give instructions. If you have a working example, I would appreciate if you post it in a comment.

Thanks!

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