Guide last updated November 29th, 2023.

Many UF and Florida Museum resources are available remotely via a broadband internet connection. Broadly, these resources fall into two categories of those that require a VPN connection and those that do not.

VPN Not Required

Email

UF email is accessible on the web and does not require a VPN connection.

MyUFL

MyUFL is available on the web at https://my.ufl.edu and does not require a VPN connection.

ONE.UF

ONE.UF is available on the web at https://one.uf.edu and does not require a VPN connection.

Canvas

UF’s Learning Management System is available on the web at https://ufl.instructure.com and does not require a VPN connection.

UF Apps

UF Apps is available on the web at https://apps.ufl.edu and does not require a VPN connection.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is available on the web at https://teams.microsoft.com and does not require a VPN connection.

Zoom

Zoom video conferencing is available on the web at https://ufl.zoom.us and does not require a VPN connection. Tutorials on how to use Zoom are provided on the UF Zoom website. All users of Zoom are encouraged to review the UF e-Learning website on keeping Zoom secure at https://elearning.ufl.edu/keep-zoom-secure/.

To allow faculty to speak to students privately, Zoom offers the ability to close a meeting room for private discussion, which is useful when discussing confidential information.  There are two ways to accomplish this and the instructions may be found at https://elearning.ufl.edu/media/elearningufledu/zoom/Privacy-and-How-to-Close-a-Room-for-Private-Discussion.pdf. Although this link starts from launching Zoom from within Canvas, the features described are available in Zoom directly without launching from Canvas.

Staff conducting meetings are encouraged to review the section on locking your session once all attendees have joined, which may be found at https://elearning.ufl.edu/keep-zoom-secure/staff/#locking-your-session.

UFIT has enabled the ability to secure Zoom meetings to UFL accounts only and recommends Zoom users do so when scheduling a meeting where all participants are UF faculty, staff, or students. Meetings secured to UFL accounts require that participants to be signed into Zoom with their UFL account when joining the meeting. Instructions to check if your are signed in to Zoom with your UF account may be found at https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/omt/blog/using-zoom-with-your-uf-account/.

Museum Intranet

The Museum Intranet is available at https://my.floridamuseum.ufl.edu and does not require a VPN connection to access remotely.

VPN Required

Resources that are specific to the Museum, such as Remote Desktop access, and shared drives, are restricted to Museum networks and require a UF FLMNH VPN connection to access remotely. The Office of Museum Technology provides video tutorials on the OMT TV website at https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/omt/tutorials/ for accessing these resources.

VPN

Gatorlink VPN – The Gatorlink VPN service provides secure remote access to the University of Florida network and makes it appear as if your computer were physically attached to the campus network. By using the Gatorlink VPN client, you may access resources on the UF network that are not typically available over an Internet path. These services may include file shares, private IP addressed systems, UF Library Journals, Software Licensing Services, and the Remote Desktop.

When working off-campus or on UF WiFi (eduroam) and you need to connect to Museum resources, it is recommended that you use the /flmnh-campus switch with the VPN for most tasks to segment UF related network traffic from general internet traffic coming and going from your computer. This is configuration is called a split tunnel and results in much better performance.

e.g. albert.gator@ufl.edu/flmnh-campus

The major exception to using the split tunnel is when you need library access. The library services to which UF subscribes will not recognize the IP address of your remote computer, so it is necessary to use the /flmnh switch to route all of your network traffic through the VPN. We recommend you only do this while you are actively using library resources and switch back to the /flmnh-campus tunnel otherwise.

Please be a courteous VPN user and disconnect your session when not in use to free resources for others. Remember to close all documents open from a shared network drive before disconnecting the VPN to prevent data loss.

Video tutorials on installing and using the UF VPN for Museum access are available at https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/omt/tutorials/connectivity/vpn/.

Network Shared Drives

Video tutorials on accessing Museum shared drives are available at https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/omt/tutorials/connectivity/shared-drives/.

Remote Desktop

Museum faculty, exempt Teams staff, and staff approved for an Alternate Work Location are enabled for Remote Desktop access to Museum Windows workstations. Remote Desktop should be reserved for accessing specialty software installed on a Museum workstation, such as a Specify collection database, and does require a VPN connection. Video tutorials for Remote Desktop access are available at https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/omt/tutorials/remote-work/remote-desktop/.

Mac Screen Sharing

Museum faculty, exempt Teams staff, and staff approved for an Alternate Work Location may request OMT to setup remote access to a Museum Mac using Screen Sharing. Open a Support Desk Ticket with OMT to request setup and include the name of the computer to which you wish to remotely connect.

Unlike Windows Remote Desktop, Mac Screen Sharing does not lock the screen of the remote computer while you are connected. Anyone with physical access to the remote computer can watch what you are doing on the screen. Mac screen sharing should be reserved for specialty software access and tasks that may only be completed on the workstation.

A video tutorial on Mac Screen sharing is available at https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/omt/tutorials/remote-work/mac-screen-sharing/.

Museum Apps

Museum Apps, including Travel Authorization and Annual Activity Report, are available at https://apps.floridamuseum.ufl.edu and do require a VPN connection.

Productivity Software

Microsoft Office 365

UF faculty, staff, and students are licensed for up to five installations of Microsoft Office 365. More information, including the download link, is available from UFIT at https://it.ufl.edu/services/gatorcloud-microsoft-office-online.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Users with a UF Adobe user-based license are allowed the use of the Adobe product(s) by a single licensed individual. Secondary installation of the software on a personally-owned machine is allowed. If you are unsure of your license type, open a Support Desk Ticket to ask OMT. The software is available from Adobe at https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html.

Telephones and Voicemail

Forwarding Office Phones and Checking Voicemail

UF allows you to forward your phone. When doing so, please remember that if you forward to a long distance number, the Museum pays for a long distance call each time your phone rings, so we encourage you to forward responsibly.

To forward calls from your phone before leaving the office:

  1. Press the Forward all Softkey (located under the screen display). You will hear 2 beeps.
  2. Enter the phone number to which you wish to foward.
  3. If forwarding off campus, don’t forget to dial “9” in front of the number.
  4. If long distance, dial “9+1+area code+number.”

To remotely forward your phone from a computer:

  1. If you are off campus, open a VPN connection (see VPN section).
  2. Logon to the Cisco Unified Communications Self Care Portal.
  3. Enter your Gatorlink username into the username field (e.g. albert.gator).
  4. Enter your Gatorlink password into the password field and click “Sign In.”
  5. Click “Call Forwarding” on the left pane.
  6. Check the box to the left of “Forward all calls to:”
  7. Click on the drop down arrow and select “Add a new number.”
  8. Enter the phone number to which you wish you to forward your calls.
  9. If the phone number is off campus, don’t forget to dial “9” in front of the number.
  10. If long distance, dial “9+1+area code+number.”
  11. Click save and close the web page.

Unified Communications – Voicemail Delivered to Email

Users may also place an OMT Support Desk request to have unified communications enabled which will link voicemail to your email Inbox.  With this feature enabled, you will receive an email for each voicemail. Listening to or deleting the voicemail in your inbox will mark the message as read or deleted on your phone. Conversely, listening to or deleting the message on your phone will mark it appropriately in your inbox.

Softphone

UF also provides soft phone services, which replaces your existing physical phone with software run on a workstation and/or mobile device. Please place an OMT Support Desk request for soft phone services.

Send & Receive Fax via Email

UF faculty and staff can send and receive faxes via email using their UF Exchange email. Sending faxes is already setup for everyone, but receiving faxes requires either converting an existing fax number or ordering a new one.  Instructions to send email via fax are published at https://it.ufl.edu/ict/documentation/telecommunications/instructional–informational-guides/efax/send–receive-fax-via-email/.

Please place an OMT Support Desk request if you wish to have your departments fax converted to receive faxes via email, or if you wish to order a new efax number for your department.

Guide last updated November 29th, 2023.