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Preparing your Laptop for network connectivity off-campus

Write down your IP Address, Default Gateway, and DNS server addresses for McMaster.

Step 1 for laptops with a static McMaster IP Address

• Click on Start and right click My Network Places and select Properties.
• Next right click your Local Area Connection and select Properties again.
• Scroll down and select Internet Protocol and click Properties .
• Select Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain the DNS address automatically.
• Click OK to close the Internet Protocol Properties window. Click on OK.

Step 2

Start a VPN connection before accessing McMaster resources that require a McMaster IP address.

Starting the VPN Dialer

• To connect to the VPN server, activate the VPN Dialer by selecting it from the Start Menu (Programs - Cisco Systems VPN Client - VPN Client).

• Once you have start ed the VPN Dialer, select McMaster VPN (Connect from Home).
• Click on the Connect button.
• Enter your MAC ID username and password.

• If successful, you should see a banner similar to the one shown above. Click on Continue. At this point you have successfully connect ed to the McMaster VPN server.

Note : VPN FAQ’s can be found at http://www.mcmaster.ca/uts/network/vpn/vpnfaq.html

Step 3 Link to an Office Server share using one of the options below.

Option 1

1. Initiate a VPN session to McMaster & authenticate to establish a tunnel.
2. Right-click on "My Network Places" or "My Computer" icon. Select the 'Map Network Drive' option.
3. Select the local drive letter you wish to associate with the Office Server share.
4. Enter the (fully-qualified) share name into the Folder window, for example: \\osX.cis.mcmaster.ca\deptcommon$ . Where osX is the server you want to connect to.
5. Click on the Connect using a different user name link further down.
6. In the new window, enter your user name prefixed by AP1, for example: AP1\MACID
7. Enter your MAC ID account password, and click OK - the new window closes.
8. Click the Finish button to establish the drive link.

1. Initiate a VPN session to McMaster & authenticate to establish a tunnel.
2. Click on Start and Run. Enter cmd and click on OK.
3. In the open DOS window enter the path below at the prompt. Substitute X with the appropriate Office Server id. Also substitue department with your department name.

net use q: \\os X.cis.mcmaster.ca\departmentcommon$ /USER:AP1\ MAC ID <press return>

Option 3

Use Notepad to create a batch file to link, or unlink, various shares in one pass. You must initiate a VPN session to McMaster and authenticate to establish a tunnel before you execute the batch file.

Linking (connecting shares) - Linkallbat

net use g: \\os X.cis.mcmaster.ca\applsoft$ /USER:AP1\ MAC ID
net use h: \\os X.cis.mcmaster.ca\ MAC ID $
net use i: \\os X.cis.mcmaster.ca\ applinfo$
net use p: \\os X.cis.mcmaster.ca\ deptappl$
net use q: \\os X.cis.mcmaster.ca\ deptcommon$
pause

Unlinking (disconnecting shares) - Unlinkall.bat:

net use g: /delete
net use h: /delete
net use i: /delete
net use p: /delete
net use q: /delete
pause

Remember to reconfigure the laptop for network connectivity when you return to campus using the information you wrote down at the start.