To help students who are completing their coursework from off-campus, the IT department has set up a remote lab system through which users can connect to designated lab computers.
IMPORTANT: While you can complete steps 1-3 without being connected to the VPN, you will need a VPN connection to be able to actually connect to a lab machine from off campus. Here are instructions for connecting to the VPN.
1. To access the remote lab launch page, visit https://remotelab.valpo.edu/. You will see a list of computers organized by room number that are available for you to use.
*Note that if you are a Mac user, you will need to download the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection app from the App Store. This link is also available from the remote lab launch page under the section Download - Remote Desktop Client. Please download this application first, before attempting to download the necessary .rdp files.
2. To initiate a connection to a lab computer remotely click on the connect button for a machine you want to use. To jump to a specific lab, click its building code and number from the list of Computer Labs on the left-hand side of the page.
3. In the window that pops up you will see a Download button. Click on that button to download the RDP connection file.
If the file does not appear in your list of downloads, or if you do not see the download dialog box pop up, check in the address bar to ensure that your browser has not automatically blocked the download.
Depending on which browser you are using, you may see a dialog box like the one below appear, asking whether you want to open or save the .rdp file. Choose "Save File" and click OK. The left dialog box is an example of a Windows download, while the right exemplifies the download on a MacOS system.
If using Google Chrome, the download will then house itself at the bottom-left corner of the browser, where you can then click it to run the .rdp file.
4. Launch the RDP file you downloaded, and a remote session into the lab computer will be established. If you see a message like the one below, warning that the remote connection originates from an unknown publisher, click the "Connect" button to continue.
5. Next, you will be prompted to enter your credentials to start the connection. By default, this will be a set of local credentials, which will not work for a lab login. For Mac users, once the .rdp file has been run, it should automatically open the Microsoft Remote Desktop app and prompt for your Valpo credentials. If not, then open the Microsoft Remote Desktop app and drag the .rdp file from your Downloads folder into an open space on the app window.
6. Click on the text "More choices" and then on the "Use a different account" option to bring up a new screen where you can enter both your Valpo username and password. Prepend your username with valpo\ to ensure that the connection uses your Valpo account, e.g. valpo\jsmith1. Click "OK" to launch the remote desktop connection.
Be sure to save your work often to an H: or S: drive folder! Anything you save to the Desktop or the Documents folder will not persist when you initiate a new remote session.
When you have finished working on the lab PC, choose either log off or restart from the Start Menu as you would if you were using it locally. DO NOT shut down the computer, or it will no longer be available to other remote lab users!